This document provides details of the TESOL Situated Development Mini-Conference 2010 titled "Astonishing Research" to be held on November 18th, 2010 at Toyo Gakuen University in Tokyo. The mini-conference will include 6 presentations from 5:50pm to 9pm on topics related to collaboration, pedagogy, corpus linguistics, course design, and professional development. It will be free to attend for those who pre-register by email.

1. TESOL Situated Development MINI-CONFERENCE 2010 -
“Astonishing Research”
Date: Thursday November 18th 2010 MAP:
Time: 5.50pm – 9pm
Venue: Toyo Gakuen University, Hongo Campus, Tokyo,
Building 1, Floor 3, Room 1301
Cost: Free to all: Pre-register to guarantee a seat.
Email Andy Boon at: bromleycross@hotmail.com
Details: < http://jwt.homestead.com/home.html >
Professional development for EFL teachers: Aston University in
collaboration with the JALT West Tokyo Chapter and Toyo Gakuen University
invites you to an evening of presentations exploring the topics of
collaboration, pedagogy, corpus, course design and professional
development.
17.50-18.00: Doors open
18.00- 18.25: Volunteer journal production: The behind-the-scenes
story of JALT Publications’ The Language Teacher
Jerry Talandis Jr. (Toyo Gakuen University)
Throughout its nearly 20-year history, JALT Publications’ The Language
Teacher (TLT) has been entirely produced by an all-volunteer staff. Until this
year when the journal moved to bi-monthly distribution, TLT had been the only
language journal published on a monthly basis. This presentation will examine
how a constantly changing community of volunteers has been able to
maintain this production effort over time and argue that lessons learned from
this on-going effort can be of use to distance education programs seeking to
create in-house journals run by course participants.
18.30- 18.55: To be or not to be
Oliver Mackie (Caritas Junior College)
In trying to render students' models of English more accurate, the temptation
to remodel or rephrase conventional explanations of grammar may occur,
particularly so when the teacher has a substantial knowledge of the students'
native language. Before embarking on such, what things should be
considered?

2. 19.00- 19.25: The use of concordances to teach ESL grammar
Hayet Amdouni (Aston University)
The computer has been widely used in ESL contexts to teach grammar, but
most software duplicate traditional approaches that focus on drilling
techniques and quiz the learner on the use of the rules put forward by
grammarians in grammar books. In this research, computer technology was
used to test those very rules and reveal the gap between classroom grammar
and real-life grammar. The article reports on a study that compares the use of
conditional in grammar books to data from the British National Corpus.
Implications of the study findings on teaching ESL grammar will also be
discussed.
19.30- 19.55: The design process of a university course in “Current
Affairs English”
Tim Marchand (Hosei University)
This presentation will look at the steps taken in the design of a university
course in "Current Affairs English". Following a framework proposed by
Graves (2000), the presentation will examine some of the choices made in
terms of assessing needs, developing materials and designing an assessment
plan among other things.
20.00- 20.45: Post-observation feedback as an instigator of learning
and change
Nur Hooton (Aston University)
This session will explore two kinds of feedback: corrective and
confirmatory, and explain the ways in which each kind of feedback may
have contributed to the learning of a group of student teachers. It will
demonstrate, through exemplification from data, how certain kinds of
feedback seem to have led to different change outcomes.
20.50-21.00: Closing Remarks