From the President, Autumn 2020

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From the President

Welcome to Term 2 and the JLTAV Autumn Newsletter. I hope everyone had a great start to the new school year. We are currently in an environment we have never experienced before and on behalf of the JLTAV Committee I hope all our colleagues are staying safe and taking care throughout this very difficult time.

It is with great disappointment that we had to postpone our Primary Professional Learning Day in Term 1 and Annual Conference at the start of Term 2. We are working with the conference venue to organise the event for 2021. The 2021 JLTAV Annual Conference will be held on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 March.

We held our 2020 Annual General Meeting online on Friday 17 April and I extend a very warm welcome to our 2020 committee. Many thanks to our committee who generously give up their time to support the Association. The 2020 committee member details can be found on the JLTAV website under ‘About Us’.

As an Association we are committed to supporting our colleagues and ensuring Japanese Language Education continues to flourish in Victoria. To support our colleagues as we move to online learning in Term 2 we are in the process of putting together some videos on how to use various digital tools to learn and teach Japanese. We will upload these onto the JLTAV YouTube channel as soon as they are finished. We have also put together a survey for JLTAV members to find out from teachers the support they require throughout 2020.

In this newsletter you will find details of the Year 12 Morning in July at the Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University Clayton (Sunday 19 July) and at Loreto College Ballarat (Sunday 26 July). We are pleased to be able to support our colleagues in regional areas by again offering the seminar in Ballarat. The venue at Loreto College holds 144 seats and as soon as this venue becomes full, students and teachers will need to attend the session at the Robert Blackwood Hall in Monash University Clayton. Teachers will be informed of this and we encourage teachers to register early to avoid disappointment. The same content will be presented in both locations. Details on how to register are included in this newsletter.

In 2020 the JLTAV is again combining with The United Nations Association of Australia (Victoria Division) to simulate a session of the UN General Assembly in Japanese. This Model UN Conference will be held on Thursday 23 July. This is an exciting opportunity for senior students to use their Japanese in an authentic context. Students will be provided with support materials in Japanese to use on the day. Our inaugural Model UN in Japanese held in 2019 was a great success and we hope lots of schools will participate in this year’s event. Further details and registration information can be found here.

I wish everyone all the best for Term 2. Stay safe and take care.

Nathan Lane

President, JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)

Refund form for the conference

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Dear Sensei-gata,

Thank you for your patience as we have put together the refund form for the conference. Please submit one form per school and make sure all details are correct. The form can be found here.
May the holidays provide a time for you to relax and unwind. Above all, please stay safe and take care in this current environment.
Thank you for your support of the JLTAV Inc. We look forward to seeing you at our conference in 2021.
Regards,
Nathan Lane
President
JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)

—

Nathan Lane
Deputy Principal Teaching and Learning
p. 03 5032 9771

2020-1 Summer Newsletter

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2020 Summer newsletter

Table of Contents
  1. From the President
  2. Dates for your diary & future event information
  3. Student event details
  4. Committee members 2019-2020
  5. Vale Mrs Mioko Wood
  6. Past event reports
  7. Year 12 practice exam order form
  8. JLTAV Certificate of Merit
  9. 2020 JLTAV membership

1. From the President

Please see the update from the President, Nathan Lane, here.

2. Dates for your diary & future event information

Upcoming events and future events for teachers are visible on our Events page.

The 2020 JLTAV Annual conference will be held on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th April.

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Friday 17th April 2020 at 5:00pm. The previous AGM’s minutes are approved, we have reports from the President and Treasurer, and nominate new Committee members. Interested teachers are invited to join the Committee if they wish to contribute to our work. For a detailed agenda, a nomination form and appointment of proxy form, please see the Notice of the Annual General Meeting of Financial Year 2019.

The JLTAV is also holding a Primary PD day this year again. Download the flyer here.

3. Student event details

Upcoming students events/competitions are visible on our Events page

Entries/Registrations are open for:

We encourage teachers to take these opportunities to help students engage with Japanese language and culture positively.

4. Committee members 2019-2020

We are proud to present the Committee for 2019-2020. Their names can be found on the About Us page.

5. Vale Mrs Mioko Wood

Written by Anne de Kretser, Director, Monash Japanese Language Education Centre

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of one of our Japanese language education pioneers, Ms Mioko Wood.

Before becoming a teacher Mioko was a well respected translator and interpreter, translating important works including, Professor Manning Clark’s ‘A History of Australia’.

Mioko was at the forefront of Japanese language education from the 70’s when it was in its infancy. She worked enthusiastically and productively to develop the curriculum and materials for the post-war teaching of Japanese in Victorian schools. Her input, hard work and determination was pivotal to the success of Japanese language education in Victoria. Mioko mentored many teachers and supervised many pre-service teachers throughout her career, encouraging and educating them by working collaboratively with them to further the professionalism of Japanese language teachers. Throughout her career she continued to be a mentor and leader in the Japanese language teaching profession giving of her time generously, always an active and productive member of the Japanese language teaching community serving as a JLTAV committee member, member of state curriculum committees, the Chief Examiner for both the Japanese Second Language and First Language courses, author of curriculum materials, supplementary teaching materials, VCE examinations and co-author of textbooks.

As an exemplary teacher, Mioko spent her teaching career at St. Catherine’s In Toorak where she motivated and encouraged numerous students. She worked diligently to ensure her students’ Japanese language levels were of a very high standard and worked very hard to establish and maintain links with schools in Japan where her students would spend their summer break furthering their proficiency while living with a host family. Mioko developed close relationships with her students and their families many of whom she remained in contact with after retirement. Mioko was a perfectionist with very high standards of herself and her students who regularly gained exceptional results in VCE examinations. Mioko also dedicated her time to helping students enter the Victorian Japanese Speech competition and other opportunities related to their studies.

Her contribution to Japanese language education was recognised by the JLTAV with a Life Membership Award. We all owe a debt of gratitude to Mioko for all her efforts in the development and success of Japanese Language Education in Victoria, she will be sadly missed.

Written by Nathan Lane, President, Japanese Language Teachers’ Association of Victoria Inc. (JLTAV)

I first came across Mrs Wood when I was a student studying Japanese in Year 12 in Adelaide and we used the text book she had co-authored called ‘ハイスクールの日本語 Japanese for Senior Secondary Students’. This was back in the 1990s when Japanese language education was advancing and we saw a lot of locally based resources produced to support learners of Japanese in Australian schools.

When I moved to Melbourne in 2000 I remember attending many professional learning workshops run by Mrs Wood, particularly around the old VCE Study Design. Mrs Wood was generous with her time and the sharing of resources she made to ensure students could achieve success in their Japanese studies.

In 2002 I became an assessor for the first time for the Japanese Second Language Oral Examination. Mrs Wood was the Chief Assessor at this time, and ensured she took new assessors under her wing and mentored and supported us. Her kindness towards me is something I have always remembered.

Mrs Wood received a life membership of the Japanese Language Teachers’ Association of Victoria Inc. (JLTAV) in recognition of her great contribution to Japanese Language Education in Victoria. Mrs Wood’s contributions to Japanese Language Education have ensured the subject that we all love to teach continues to flourish in Victoria. Thank you Mrs Wood, you will be sadly missed.

6. Past event reports

On the Events page of our website, you can now see all past events back to the start of 2016. This will continue to be updated with new event reports as they are made.

The event reports for the immersion weekend, sticker design competition, and calligraphy competition are available from our website.

7. Year 12 practice exam order form

The past year 12 practice exams are available for order from the Services page of the JLTAV website.

8. JLTAV Certificate of Merit

The JLTAV is now holding a Certificate of Merit award.

For more information, click here to go to Certificate of Merit page on our website.

9. 2020 JLTAV membership

Application for membership of the JLTAV in 2020 is now open.

For further information, please go to our Membership page of the JLTAV website

From the President, Summer 2020

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Welcome to Term 1 and the JLTAV Summer Newsletter. I hope you have all had an enjoyable holiday break and are refreshed and energised to start the new school year.

Another year begins and we are pleased to continue to offer teachers and students a range of events and activities throughout 2020. We will promote our events through the JLTAV website, Nihongo Victoria, the JLTAV and Japanese Language Teachers of Australia Facebook pages as well as through the Department of Education and Training Languages Regional Project Officers.

Thank you to the students and schools who supported our 2019 calligraphy and sticker competitions. We have included the results of these competitions in this newsletter. Please encourage your students to submit an entry for our 2020 JLTAV events poster competition.

Our language immersion weekend to support non-native teachers of Japanese was held early in Term 4, 2019 from 11 to 13 October. The event was held at a new venue, the Mantra Lorne. A report on this event is included in this newsletter. Many thanks to Kathleen Duquemin for organising the weekend and to our mentor teachers: Yuichi Deguchi, Takanori Hayakawa and Junko Nichols who generously gave their time to facilitate this weekend and shared their wealth of knowledge with us.

We look forward to seeing you at this year’s JLTAV Annual Conference on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 April at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in South Wharf. Our annual conference keeps going from strength to strength and we have again been able to put together an exciting program. Many thanks to our colleagues who will be presenting this year. Our conference is becoming a national event as we are seeing more presenters and delegates from interstate. Further details on the conference program will be launched at the start of the new school year. Our Annual General Meeting will again be held at this year’s conference on Friday 17 April from 5.00 to 5.30pm. We encourage members to nominate themselves to join the JLTAV committee for 2020. One gains a lot of satisfaction from being involved in the Association and ensuring Japanese Language Education continues to flourish in Victoria.

In 2017 we launched the JLTAV Award, however, we are yet to award this to one of our member teachers. Details of the nomination process for this award are outlined in this newsletter. We extend our thanks to the MLTAV for allowing us to adapt and use their wording.

Sincere thanks to the Department of Education and Training (DET) for their great support and for providing a yearly grant to enable us to organise student events and professional learning for teachers. We look forward to the ongoing support from the DET in 2020.

It was with great sadness towards the end of 2019 that we reported the passing of Mrs Mioko Wood, a life member of the JLTAV. Included in this newsletter is a vale to Mrs Wood written by Anne de Kretser and myself.

In 2020 we see the full implementation of the new Study Design for VCE Japanese Second Language. We will be offering sessions on the new Study Design at the conference. We wish all our VCE students great success in their Japanese studies in 2020.

On behalf of the committee I thank you all for your support of the JLTAV. I wish everyone all the best for the start of the 2020 school year.

Nathan Lane

President

JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)

2019-4 Spring Newsletter

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2019 Spring newsletter

Table of Contents
  1. From the President
  2. Dates for your diary & future event information
  3. Student competition details
  4. Past event reports
  5. Committee members 2019-2020
  6. Year 12 practice exam order form
  7. JLTAV Certificate of Merit
  8. 2020 JLTAV membership

1. From the President

Please see the update from the President, Nathan Lane, here.

2. Dates for your diary & future event information

Upcoming events and future events for teachers are visible on our Events page.

The 2020 JLTAV Annual conference will be held on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th April.

3. Student competition details

Upcoming students events/competitions are visible on our Events page

Entries are open for:

We encourage teachers to take these opportunities to help students engage with Japanese language and culture positively.

4. Past event reports

On the Events page of our website, you can now see all past events back to the start of 2016. This will continue to be updated with new event reports as they are made.

The event report and prize winners for the 2019 JLTAV Junior Speech Competition are now available.

The event report for the 2019 Year 12 Morning is also available from our website.

5. Committee members 2019-2020

We are proud to present the Committee for 2018-2019. Their names can be found on the About Us page.

6. Year 12 practice exam order form

The past year 12 practice exams are available for order from the Services page of the JLTAV website.

7. JLTAV Certificate of Merit

The JLTAV is now holding a Certificate of Merit award.

For more information, click here to go to Certificate of Merit page on our website.

8. 2020 JLTAV membership

The information and application for membership of the JLTAV in 2020 will be updated on the Membership page of the JLTAV website shortly.

From the President, Spring 2019

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From the President

Welcome to Term 4 and the JLTAV Spring Newsletter. I hope you have all had an enjoyable holiday break. I know a number of schools go to Japan during the September holidays, and I hope these tours have been successful and most enjoyable.

On Saturday 3 August Professor Nobuaki Minematsu from the Graduate School of Engineering, UTokyo and Project OJAD, presented a professional learning workshop on the OJAD (Online Japanese Accent Dictionary).

Our two major student events for Term 3 were the ‘Year 12 Morning’ in July and the ‘Junior Speech Competition’ in August. Reports for these events are included in this newsletter.

On Thursday 22 August we ran our inaugural Model UN Conference in Japanese at the Treasury Theatre in East Melbourne. The topic was achieving gender equality: empowering women and girls. This was a wonderful opportunity for senior students to use their Japanese in an authentic context. Many thanks to the students who participated on the day and to their teachers who helped prepare their students for the event. A number of teachers contributed to writing resources in Japanese in preparation for this event and we extend our grateful thanks to them for their support. Many thanks also to Ms Catherine Hirst, Senior Project Officer in the Languages Unit at the Department of Education and Training, Dr Sally Northfield, Education Program Coordinator for the United Nations of Australia (Victorian Division), and Mr Satoshi Sanada from John Monash Science School who was our amazing Secretary General and facilitator for the day.

On Sunday 8 September the Japanese Language Speech Contest Victoria (JLSCV) was held at the University of Melbourne. Congratulations to Hiroshi Honda, the President of the JLSCV Inc. and JLTAV life member, for his fine organisation of this contest.

In Term 3 we offered a calligraphy competition and congratulate all the students who submitted an entry. Results for this competition will be announced in Term 4.

Please encourage your students to submit an entry for our student competitions: sticker design and hiragana mnemonic. We hope to create some amazing resources to share with JLTAV members.

The 2020 JLTAV Annual Conference is scheduled for Friday 17 and Saturday 18 April in the Melbourne CBD (Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre). We invite expressions of interest from teachers in Victoria and further afield to present a workshop at next year’s conference. We know our Japanese teaching colleagues are doing amazing things in their classrooms and we encourage them to present, especially teachers who have never presented at our conference before. We ask interested teachers to complete the form (here) by Friday 18 October. All submissions will be assessed by a panel and all applicants will by notified regarding the success of their submission early Term 4. We aim to release the conference program and registrations in Term 4. We look forward to another exciting conference in 2020.

In 2016 the JLTAV launched the JLTAV Certificate of Merit. We encourage members to read the information about this certificate on the JLTAV website (available here) and to nominate their colleagues for their outstanding contribution to Japanese language teaching in Victoria.

I wish everyone a successful Term 4 and all the best with report writing and assessment as the year draws to an end. I wish all the students studying Year 12 Japanese great success in their end of year exams.

Nathan Lane

President, JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)

2019-3 Winter Newsletter

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2019 Winter newsletter

Table of Contents
  1. From the President
  2. Dates for your diary & future event information
  3. Committee members 2019-2020
  4. Past event reports
  5. Year 12 practice exam order form
  6. JLTAV regional support scheme information

1. From the President

Please see the update from the President, Nathan Lane, here.

2. Dates for your diary & future event information

Upcoming events and future events for teachers and students are visible on our Events page.

Registrations are open for the following teacher events that we are offering:

Registrations/Entries are open for the following student events:

The details for the following student event will be updated to our website in near future:

  • Calligraphy competition

In addition to the JLTAV events, there is also a “Senior” Japanese Language Speech Contest Victoria 2019, organised by JLSCV Inc. on 8th September 2019.

For more information, please check their website (https://japanspeechcontest.org.au/).

3. Committee members 2019-2020

We are proud to present the Committee for 2019-2020. Their names can be found on the About Us page.

4. Past event reports

On the Events page of our website, you can now see all past events back to the start of 2016. This will continue to be updated with new event reports as they are made.

Event Report: Wodonga Professional Learning Day
On Saturday 22 June, Nathan Lane and Kathleen Duquemin presented a whole day workshop to eight teachers from the Wodonga region. The content covered during the day included units of work and assessment, technology and the use of PowerPoint, and linking literacy with developing listening skills.

Many thanks to Lana Thorpe from Wodonga Senior Secondary College who assisted in organising the day. Thank you also to the teachers who attended. We hope we can continue to support our regional colleagues by presenting professional learning outside of Melbourne.

5. Year 12 practice exam order form

The past year 12 practice exams are available for order from the Services page of the JLTAV website.

6. Regional support scheme information

The Regional Support Scheme provides funding to support Japanese teachers to hold events in regional Victoria.

More information is available from the Services page of the JLTAV website.

From the President, Winter 2019

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Welcome to Term 3 and the JLTAV Winter Newsletter. Term 2 is always a busy time of the year with report writing. I hope this has been successful for everyone and you have enjoyed a well-deserved holiday break.

Our first student event for Term 3 is the ‘Year 12 Morning’. This year we are again running the event in two locations: Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University Clayton (Sunday 21 July) and Loreto College Ballarat (Sunday 28 July). We are pleased to be able to support our colleagues in regional areas by offering the seminar in Ballarat. We wish all Year 12 students success as preparations for their end-of-year exams intensify in Term 3.

On Thursday 22 August our inaugural Model UN Conference in Japanese will be held at the Treasury Theatre in East Melbourne. Many thanks to Catherine Hirst from the Department of Education and Dr Sally Northfield from the UNAA Victoria for their support in organising this event.

Later in Term 3, on Sunday 25 August, we will be holding the Junior Speech Contest at Presentation College Windsor. Details of this competition have been included in this newsletter and on the JLTAV website. We extend our best wishes to all participants in this competition and congratulate them all for their participation.

Our highly successful calligraphy competition will again be held during Term 3. Details of this competition will be launched shortly. We have extended the due date for entries for the Hiragana Mnemonic competition until Friday 20 December. Our aim is to create a useful resource for members.

Thank you to our members who completed the recent professional learning survey. We have analysed the results and the areas teachers identified for professional learning include: engaging games and activities, ICT/digital tools, new VCE Study Design and primary/secondary curriculum planning. As an association we are committed to providing professional learning to our members. Your feedback is valuable in setting the direction for the events we organise in the future and we will take on board your feedback.

On Saturday 3 August, Professor Nobuaki Minematsu will run a professional learning day for teachers focussing on the Online Japanese Accent Dictionary (OJAD). This event will be held at Presentation College Windsor and registration details have been included in this newsletter.

In early Term 4, from Friday 11 October to Sunday 13 October, we will again hold our hugely successful Language Maintenance Immersion Weekend at a new venue, the Mantra in Lorne. This is the perfect opportunity to practise and develop your Japanese skills with native speaker mentors. The weekend is open to all language level abilities and details of this professional learning activity can be found in this newsletter. Sincere thanks to our 2019 native speaker mentors: Yuichi Deguchi, Takanori Hayakawa and Junko Nichols.

In 2016 the JLTAV launched the JLTAV Certificate of Merit. We encourage members to read the information about this certificate on the JLTAV website (available here) and to nominate their colleagues for their outstanding contribution to Japanese language teaching in Victoria.

The JLTAV Committee continue to work hard to organise events throughout the year and I thank them for all their hard work, generosity and commitment to the Association. Contact details of the 2019 committee have been included in this newsletter.

I wish everyone a successful Term 3 and thank you for your support of the JLTAV Inc. Keep warm and healthy over these winter months!

Nathan Lane

President, JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)

2019-2 Autumn Newsletter

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2019 Autumn newsletter

Table of Contents
  1. From the President
  2. Dates for your diary & future event information
  3. Committee members 2019-2020
  4. Past event reports
  5. Year 12 practice exam order form
  6. JLTAV regional support scheme information
  7. JLTAV Certificate of Merit

1. From the President

Please see the update from the President, Nathan Lane, here.

2. Dates for your diary & future event information

Upcoming events and future events for teachers and students are visible on our Events page.

The registrations are now open for:

The details for the following events will be updated to our website in near future

  • Junior speech competition
  • Calligraphy competition
  • Language maintenance immersion weekend

3. Committee members 2019-2020

We are proud to present the Committee for 2019-2020. Their names can be found on the About Us page.

4. Past event reports

On the Events page of our website, you can now see all past events back to the start of 2016. This will continue to be updated with new event reports as they are made.

The event report and photos of the 2019 JLTAV Annual Conference and AGM report are now available.

5. Year 12 practice exam order form

The past year 12 practice exams are available for order from the Services page of the JLTAV website.

6. Regional support scheme information

The Regional Support Scheme provides funding to support Japanese teachers to hold events in regional Victoria.

More information is available from the Services page of the JLTAV website.

7. JLTAV Certificate of Merit

The JLTAV is now holding a Certificate of Merit award.

For more information, click here to go to Certificate of Merit page on our website.

From the President, Autumn 2019

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Welcome to Term 2 and the JLTAV Autumn Newsletter. I hope everyone had a great Term 1.

At the end of the Term 1 we held our Annual Conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in South Wharf. This year’s conference was the largest in the history of the Association. A report from the two days has been included in this newsletter. The Annual General Meeting was held at the conclusion of Friday’s workshop program and I extend a very warm welcome to the new committee for 2019. The report on the Association’s activities for 2018 has been included in this newsletter. Details of the 2019 JLTAV committee can be found on the JLTAV website.

Thank you to those students and schools who supported the competition to design the front cover of this year’s conference book. We received a large number of entries thereby making it difficult to select a winner. The winner was Sophie Bloomer from Kilbreda College. We congratulate all students on the creativity in their entries for this competition.

In this newsletter you will find details of the Year 12 Morning in July at the Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University Clayton (Sunday 21 July) and at Loreto College Ballarat (Sunday 28 July). We are pleased to be able to support our colleagues in regional areas by again offering the seminar in Ballarat. The venue at Loreto College holds 144 seats and as soon as this venue becomes full, students and teachers will need to attend the session at the Robert Blackwood Hall in Monash University Clayton. Teachers will be informed of this and we encourage teachers to register early to avoid disappointment. The same content will be presented in both locations. Details on how to register are included in this newsletter.

In 2019 the JLTAV is combining with The United Nations Association of Australia (Victoria Division) to simulate a session of the UN General Assembly in Japanese. This Model UN Conference will be held on Thursday 22 August. This is an exciting opportunity for senior students to use their Japanese in an authentic context. Students will be provided with support materials in Japanese to use on the day. We hope lots of schools will participate in this new initiative. Further details and registration information can be found here.

The 2019 Junior Speech Competition will be held on Sunday 25 August at Presentation College Windsor. Details of the competition are available on the JLTAV website.

Due to decreasing registrations we have decided not to run the ‘Why Learn Japanese?’ Student Forum this year. We are using this year to investigate a new format for the event with the aim to relaunch the event in 2020. If you have any suggestions for a new format please email me at nrlane@pcw.vic.edu.au.

The JLTAV is committed to supporting our colleagues in rural areas through our regional support scheme. Details of this are available on the JLTAV website under the ‘support’ tab.

I wish everyone a great Term 2.

Nathan Lane

President, JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)