OATJ Planning For a Big School Year

Ohio Association of Teachers of Japanese is looking forward to a year full of events!

Rebecca Allen, Dublin Jerome and Coffman High Schools, Vice-President OATJ

Between annual events and several new ones, OATJ is anticipating a school year filled with both professional development for our members and exciting opportunities for our students to expand and demonstrate their skills.  Some events are described below, but details for all events can now be shared through a calendar on our organization’s website: http://oatj.wordpress.com/

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test was developed in 1984 in Japan to assess the reading and listening comprehension skills of non-native learners of Japanese.  There are now assessments offered at five levels of difficulty, ranging from roughly ACTFL Novice High level (N5 exam) through ACTFL Superior level (N1 exam).  In the United States, the test is offered once a year on the first Sunday in December.  This year, for the first time, Columbus will be an international test site!  This recognition of the number of learners K-16 in Ohio is very exciting, and we hope that we will have a strong turnout.

A Japanese Language Teacher Workshop will be held at Wittenberg University on Sunday, November 2, featuring guest presenter Dr. Elizabeth Lavolette.  Dr. Lavolette is an expert in both Japanese language pedagogy as well as the use of technology as a tool for teaching language.  We will explore technological resources for both instruction and students’ individual study time, with a focus on software that works well with non-alphabetic writing systems.

The Japan-America Society of Central Ohio will host their annual speech contest for students of Japanese on Saturday, March 7 at the Dublin Rec Center.  With separate divisions for high school and university students, this continues to be an excellent opportunity for our students to demonstrate their skills as well as win prizes for their hard work.

April 10-12, OATJ will host the 25th Annual Conference of the Central Association of Teachers of Japanese (CATJ) at The University of Findlay.  CATJ is a regional group of state associations of Japanese teachers, and this conference is an exciting chance to collaborate and hear about recent research in K-16 Japanese pedagogy.