Dear JACET ESP Kanto members,

I hope this message finds you well. It is my pleasure to announce that our next meeting will be held on July 9, Saturday, 2022, on ZOOM. Please refer to the following for the detailed meeting ZOOM setup, program, title, abstract, and the bio of the speaker.

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Program:

10:00-10:45 Research Presentation & Discussion

10:45-12:00 Business Meeting

Presentation

Title: A Mastery Learning and Input Flooding Approach to Vocabulary Assessment under Emergency Remote Teaching

Presenter: Robert B. Gommerman, Chuo University

Abstract

Vocabulary study is an important component of any English language curriculum. In the context of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class, it is essential that students understand and use words that are appropriate for writing tasks such as research papers and reports. The Academic Word List (AWL), developed by Coxhead (1998), is a particularly useful tool in this regard as it focuses students’ attention on the keywords of academic English. The challenge for the program designer then, is to create a system that will appropriately evaluate students based on their knowledge, acquisition, and application of the words in the AWL. This task is made more complicated under circumstances of emergency remote learning, brought upon by the ongoing pandemic, wherein traditional methods for testing students cannot be relied on. This presentation will introduce a novel method for teaching and testing vocabulary that combines learning and evaluation through a mastery learning approach in a manner that addresses the difficulty of assessment in a remote classroom.

Bio of the presenter:

Robert Gommerman has been working at universities in the Tokyo area for the last 13 years and currently works as a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at Chuo University’s newly created Faculty of Global Management, a department that operates as an English Medium Instruction (EMI) program. Robert plays the central role in coordinating curriculum development of the Academic English writing classes and is helping to shape the program to be one based strongly on data science.