JALT Junior 2008

You are invited to submit a presentation for the JALT Junior conference
at JALT2008:

The 34th JALT International Conference
PAC7 at JALT2008
"Shared Identities+ Our Interweaving Threads"
National Olympics Memorial Youth Center, Tokyo, Japan
October 31st ~ November 3rd, 2008
http://jalt.org/conference

Lesley Ito, the Program Chair for JALT Junior 2007, has some suggestions
for writing and submitting your abstract:

Oh, no! The deadline is April 25?
A simple guide to submitting your proposal for the JALT2008 Conference

This may be your first time to submit a proposal for a JALT conferenc.
Perhaps your submission was not accepted in the past and you are trying
again. I was a first-timer a few years ago and remember how hard it was
to write the abstract, let alone navigate the online submission procedure.

Submitters should take comfort in the fact that the selection process is blind. No one's name appears on submissions, so you have just as much chance as anyone else.

Your first stop should be the Call for Papers <http://jalt.org/files/CALL.pdf> (<http://www.jalt.org/files/CALL_jpn.pdf> in Japanese). In the Call for Papers, you'll find helpful information
about the length of the title, summary, and abstract and the importance
of writing these in the third-person-future form. You'll also find information
on what not to do when writing your abstract: Don't cut and paste material
from Microsoft Word, don't leave multiple breaks between paragraphs, and
don't use tabs or curly quotes.

Once you have read the submission guidelines, it is time to fill out the
online form at <http://jalt.org/conference/submit>. Your first question might be "What do they mean by vetted?"
A vetted presentation is one that needs to be submitted for approval. Non-vetted
presentations are ones sponsored by a publishing company, local JALT chapter,
or SIG that don't need to be approved. Most likely, yours will be vetted.

Make sure your contact information is in English. Please note that if your
email address changes, the committee may have trouble contacting you, and
this could lead to your presentation being dropped from the database. You
can find your JALT membership number on the label of your TLT.

If you have a preference for room size, complete the room size box. JALT
Junior will be in rooms for 40 or 80.

I truly believe that your title can make or break your presentation. I'm sure you are excited about your ideas, so why give your presentation a bland, boring title? For example, my last presentation was on a technique I developed called Grammar Triggers. I could have titled my presentation, Grammar Triggers: A Way to Teach Grammar to Children, but instead I gave it the more interesting title of Grammar Triggers: The Key to Classroom Success. When writing your title, keep in mind the large number of submissions the committee has to go through; you'll want to have a title that catches their eye. On that note, try to avoid puns-usually the joke falls flat and could confuse would-be attendees about what your presentation is actually about.

Give yourself plenty of time to write the abstract and summary. They aren't
terribly long, so at first glance they look easy to write. Don't be fooled!
The first time I submitted something, it took about three times longer
than I thought it would. I also wasted a lot of energy kicking myself for
waiting until the last minute! Your title has to be in English, but your
summary and abstract may be in Japanese, if you plan to present in Japanese.
The reading committee will see only the title and the abstract, not the
summary, so make sure all the important information is in the abstract.

Since you can't cut and paste from Microsoft Word, I found it helpful to write out my abstract and summary on Word to get a word count, print it, read it over a few times, send it to a trusted friend (if possible), make corrections, and then retype it into the submission form. Keep these questions in mind: Does the abstract clearly convey my presentation ideas? Did I write it in complete sentences in the third person future tense? Would I want to attend my presentation? Obviously, the above contemplation and checking cannot be done at the last minute, so start the process at least a few weeks before the deadline.

There are two categories for content. One is based on your teaching context and the other on specific interest areas. Most of the categories for content areas relate to JALT SIG groups, so it might be helpful to contact the head of the SIG group if you are unsure if your presentation fits into a given category. At the Program Director's meeting last year, some people complained that candidates submitted presentations that clearly did not belong to a particular category. Don't let this important point hinder your acceptance!

There is a limited supply of equipment, so consider this question carefully--but
you have time to think about it. If your presentation is accepted, you
will be asked then what equipment you need,

It might at first feel intimidating to submit a proposal, but have confidence in your ideas and remember that the process is open to all. I wish you the best of luck!

Reported by Lesley Ito
BIG BOW English Lab
<lesleyhiroyuki@kxa.biglobe.ne.jp>

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A version of this article originally appeared in The Language Teacher,
February 2007, and is copyright c 1996-2007 by JALT. Under no circumstances
may it be resold or redistributed for compensation of any kind without
prior written permission from JALT.