Amanda Gillis Furutaka
About
Amanda was born and educated in the UK. She has an MA in TESOL and a PhD in Music. She taught in a variety of countries (France, Portugal, Brazil, and China) before arriving in Japan in 1988 ... and she is still happily living and working there. She was introduced to ER by Tom Robb when they were colleagues at Kyoto Sangyo University (KSU). She has researched and written about ER for many years and currently teaches ER to first and second year English majors at KSU.Sessions
College and University Exploring plot structure through reading and writing in class more
Wed, Aug 9, 12:15-12:50 Asia/Tokyo
The aim of extensive reading is to enable students to read fiction and non-fiction more efficiently. Non-fiction texts, such as biographies, instruction manuals, news reports, advertising, etc., follow the same basic structure as works of fiction. Why is this? Cognitive scientists have demonstrated that the human brain comprehends, analyzes, memorizes, learns, and teaches others through stories. This process of story creation and sharing is as much a part of our human nature as language and walking on two feet. Although we all have this natural ability to follow, retell, and create stories in our first language, when processing language stories through a second or third language we may find it harder to follow the narrative plot. This presentation introduces a series of activities to help students identify the stages of the plot of books they have read and then to consolidate their understanding through creating their own stories collectively.