Dawn Lucovich, President of The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), Tokyo, Japan

Greetings from The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) or Zenkoku Gogaku Kyoiku Gakkai in Japanese! In 2020 and 2021, like many places in the world, various areas in Japan have declared a state of emergency. To address the lack of face-to-face events and relative isolation that we are contending with, I recognized that now would be an excellent time to launch new initiatives to address several pressing issues in our organization.

First, I wanted to ensure that leaders were closer to and more accessible to general members. Secondly, I hoped to create spaces that were less rigid than conferences or traditional presenter-audience formats to allow members to better network and socialize with each other. Thirdly, I aimed to formally welcome and inaugurate new members of our organization, especially because we were operating in a virtual environment. I wanted to make sure they had the necessary information to navigate online spaces and to make the most of their membership, as well as to enable new members to meet and form cohorts, which is important for retention purposes. Finally, my last goal was to form and strengthen a wider community of practice that can still meet during these stay-at-home times and continue to meet even after the pandemic is over--stronger and more connected.

I modeled my initial ideas off of ‘fireside chats’ in which a leader addresses and updates the population, as well as an annual ‘state of the chapter’ event which we began when I was president of the Tokyo JALT Chapter. At the annual state of the chapter, we would present officer reports and future goals, hold elections, and host an invited guest speaker with a social event afterward. However, due to the pandemic, my ideas have been transformed into something arguably more powerful.

JALT now hosts a free online event on the last Sunday of each month to facilitate networking, discussion, and collaboration. It is called “Zoom for Professional Development” (ZPD) and is named after the “Zone of Proximal Development” (Vygotsky, 1978). Loosely interpreted, this means that there are tasks that people can accomplish alone, but that people can accomplish more challenging tasks if they do them with other people. There is an African proverb, “if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”. These are the underlying principles of the JALT ZPD. During our first event in January, held via Zoom, we welcomed over 40 participants, hosted 14 different themed breakout rooms, and signed up 6 new members. Events like this can be effective both for organizations to increase their strength and diversity, and for individuals to make new and deeper connections.

Going online has also allowed for innovation in format for our executive board meetings and presentations at other affiliate members’ conferences. At the recent Annual Korea TESOL (KOTESOL) International Conference in February 2021, the conference chairs were open to allowing JALT to add a roundtable format to their existing presentation formats. This allowed four presenters who were JALT and/or KOTESOL members to share their experience, expertise, and proposals for collaboration between Korea and Japan. I would recommend this kind of collaborative presentation to any affiliates who would like to highlight their members’ diverse interests and skillsets, bridge geographical and cultural gaps and strengthen organizational ties.

In conclusion, even though 2020 was full of challenges for our organizations and our members, there are still some lessons that we can learn and bring forward with us into 2021 and beyond. We must continue to take advantage of and leverage the many lessons that we have collectively learned. Initiatives like the JALT ZPD and joint JALT-KOTESOL Roundtable would not have been possible in years prior. As the world and technology adapt and advance, we as language teaching associations must also adapt and advance to continue to be relevant in a rapidly changing world.

References

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: the Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bio: Dawn Lucovich became President of The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) on January 1, 2021, and warmly welcomes discussion and dialogue with other affiliate leaders at the next ZPD (bit.ly/ZPDRSVP), at the 47th Annual JALT International Conference on November 13th-15th, 2021 (https://jalt.org/conference/jalt2021), or by email at president@jalt.