The JALT Vocabulary SIG Symposium

I was lucky enough to be able to attend this year’s JALT Vocabulary SIG Symposium on Saturday in Fukuoka. It was the first time for me to attend the event, and I found it useful enough to put it on my list to attend next year.

The format for the symposium was to have two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with a poster session/lunch in between. Each session consisted of four twenty-minute presentations of research followed by comments from a discussant (this year Paul Nation and Yo In’nami served in this role).

Apart from the fact that it was held in Fukoka, which has the most convenient airport (5 minutes by subway from the central train station) and possibly the best ramen in Japan, the symposium had several other things going for it:

• the quality of presentations was high
• having a discussant comment on the research papers gave powerful insight into how to approach research
• having the entire symposium in one room allowed all the participants to have the same experience
• the venue was conveniently located ten minutes by subway from the city centre
• the organization was very smooth, with signs and volunteer guides, coffee sessions, and a well-organized poster session

Basically I was very impressed and recommend future Vocabulary SIG events -hope to see you at one in the future!