What's New at Kyoto NHK ESS?

Dear Kyoto NHK ESS members,

This is an announcement of the practice on October 10th.

1. Let’s play the word association game.
First member says one word, for example “June.” Next member says a sentence “That reminds me of rain because we have a lot of rain in June." The reason can be very personal.
The word leads to another word that should be connected in some way.
It continues on until someone can’t make a connection anymore.

2. I prepare some pictures. You can bring some pictures by yourself.
Choose one picture and describe what you see in the picture one by one.
I hope you will enjoy it.

Shiho Nakashima

Dear Kyoto ESS members
This is the announcement of the practice on Oct 17.

Genre: Group talk
Title: What is important to you?

(1) Make some groups.
(2) Talk about what is important to you in your group.

I hope you will enjoy this practice.

Best regards
Satoko Okubo

Dear Kyoto ESS members
This is the announcement of a practice on Oct 24.

Genre:Group talk
Title:Discussion on current news
Program summary:
Make several groups. There are 2 short news topics.
Each topics includes discussion points. Number of discussion topic(s) 1 or 2 is up to your group.
Please enjoy talking!

1)Kyoto is the world’s best city to travel to, a survey by Time Inc. revealed

2)EU Continues to Receive Increasing Number of Refugees

See you at the temple
Regards
Ishizaki

Practice① for Oct 31st

Hi.

Here is an announcement on the very first activity of ＥＳＳ camping.
Genre : variety
1st stage: Adjective , Adjective , Adjective !

2nd stage: Quiz Competition

3rd stage: Quiz Competition

4th stage: Quiz Competition

T.Noguchi

Practice② for Oct 31st
Hi, there!

This is the announcement of my practice session on October 31st, 2015.
To be precise, it's going to be the second practice on the day one of
Kyoto ESS English Camp.

Genre: Discussion
Title: Good Thinker's Toolkit

Everyone carves to be a good thinker, doesn't she? It's not only
vital to success in any fields, but also it helps to win good friends
who may have a good influence on us.

But it's easier said than done. You need practice.

In this session, we're going to discuss things which interest us by
utilizing "Good Thinker's Toolkit". It is said that, at elementally
schools in the US, they teach children how to think effectively. [1]

This "Good Thinker's Toolkit" is actually a set of templates and
guidelines you are encouraged to stick when you're discussing.
The following is the contents of the toolkit:

- What do you mean by...
- True?　Is it factual? How do we find out?
- Reasons; support your opinion
- Examples; Evidence; to support a claim
- Counter-examples; check the truth of a broad statement
- Assumptions - make them known when they underlie discussion
- Inferences: "If ... then"; Implications

Here is the approximate session timetable:

(1) Make discussion groups. (five minutes)

(2) Write topic cards and throw them into "`I wonder ...' bottle".
(Ten minutes)

(3) Pick a topic from the bottle and discuss until the time is up.

That's all for now.
See you soon.

Cheers!

Masakazu Yoshida
----
Reference:

[1] Island Life - 小学校ではこうやって議論のやり方を教える...
http://blog.practical-scheme.net/shiro/20150925-thinkers-toolkit

Practice③ for Oct 31st
Dear Kyoto ESS members:
This is the announcement for the practice on Oct. 31st 2015 at our English training camp.
Presenter: Osamu Minamihashi
Date: Oct. 31st, 2015、16:10～17:30　（80 minutes）
Genre: Debate
Title: Should Japan adopt English as the second official language?
Description and Time table on Oct 31st.
16:10　１) Make some groups so that each group has 3 members. If 1 member were left, I would ask the leader to be a special additional judge. If 2 members were left, Minamihashi would join the group. In any case, Minamihashi would be a time keeper.
16:15　2) Please confirm within each group that this is a kind of game for English practice that would not directly have any impact on our real world. And then, fold each 3 pieces of A3 paper 3 times so that there would be 8 parts.
16:16　3) Read the material Minamihashi distributes.
4) Discuss and write your major points of possible speech as the Affirmative, the Negative and the Judge.
The Affirmative must argue it is advantageous for Japan to adopt English as the second official language.
The Negative must argue it is disadvantageous for Japan to adopt such policy.
The judge is expected to decide the winner of the match for some persuasive reasons.
5) Decide the order to be the Affirmative, the Negative and the Judge so that your group consists of 3 little groups.
Present all ADs and DAs during AC and NC.
Be careful so that each member would take 3 different roles in turn.
6) Prepare your flow sheets to take note during the 3 debate matches.
16:30　7) Let each speaker start his speech in the following order and time frame. (20分で1試合)
1st Round
16:30　Affirmative Constructive Speech(2minutes, 肯定側立論２分)（AC）
16:32　Cross-Examination by the Negative(2minutes, 否定側から肯定側へ反対尋問２分)（Cross-X　N⇒A）
16:34　Negative Constructive Speech(2 minutes, 否定側立論２分)（NC）
16:36　Cross-Examination by the Affirmative(2minutes, 肯定側から否定側へ反対尋問2分)(Cross-X　A⇒N）
16:38　Affirmative Rebuttal Speech(2 minutes, 肯定側による反論2分)（AR）
16:40　Cross-Examination　by both sides(2 minutes, 双方による反対尋問2分)（Cross-X　A⇔N）
16:42　Negative Rebuttal Speech(2 minutes, 否定側による反論2分)（NR）
16:44　Decision & Reason by the Judge(4 minutes, ジャッジによる勝敗の判定とその理由、4分)（Decision）
16:48　Turn the role clockwise in your group and prepare for 2nd Round.
8) 2nd Round
16:50　AC
16:52　Cross-X　N⇒A
16:54　NC
16:56　Cross-X　A⇒N
16:58　AR
17:00　Cross-X　A⇔N
17:02　NR
17:04　Decision by the Judge
17:08　Turn the role clockwise in your group once more and prepare for 3rd round.
9) 3rd Round
17:10　AC
17:12　Cross-X　N⇒A
17:14　NC
17:16　Cross-X　A⇒N
17:18　AR
17:20　Cross-X　A⇔N
17:22　NR
17:24　Decision by the Judge
17:28　Comments from Minamihashi
17:30　End of the debate practice
Let’s enjoy debate!

This is the announcement of the fourth practice of English Camp.(before special practice !)

Genre : game

Title : Who are you ?

1. I deal papers with imaginary character's name.
(Animation-character , Monster, etc.)

2. One member introduces oneself as the character . (But don't say character's name.)

3. Other members guess the name of the character .

Let's enjoy Halloween night !

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Matsui Akiko

Hello ESS members,

This is the announcement of the fifth practice of our English training camp.
It will be on the second day, November 1st.

We are going to play a game called "charade". It is a word guessing game by originally acting out a word or phrase. But we will make it verbally this time.

《 procedure》
①　Players sit on a chair making a half circle.

②　One player selected as a guesser stands in front of the others.

③　Coordinator holds a slip of paper , unseen from the guesser, on which a word or phrase is written.

④　The other players give hints to the guesser to be successfully able to guess the word or phrase.

Time limit will be set.
When the time comes, whether the guess is right or not, the next guesser will be designated.
Coordinator will record the each answering time.

The fastest and the most unsuccessful guesser will be commended !!!

Tamaki Murase

Hello, ESS members,

This is the announcement of the last practice of our English training camp, on the second day, November 1st.
Genre: Talk
Title: Our lives in 2025 (future)

Forget about your age, and let's imagine what the world will be like in about 10 years’ time?
Here are some examples of topics.
1. Robotics
- What kind of Robot do you expect to live with or wish to have in future?
- Do you welcome Translator robot? (This makes English leaning unnecessary)
- Could Artificial Intelligence be a threat to us?
2. Automobile
- Automatic Driving will be common? (Do you personally like it?)
- Clean energy cars like EV and Fuel-Cell Vehicle will prevail?
3. Energy
- Will Gas station be replaced by Hydrogen station?
- What kind of Energy source will be common? Or you want to use in future?
- Will nuclear energy be a thing of the past?
4. Smart phone
- How will smart phone in the future look like?
5. World
- Which country will be prosperous?
6. Aging society/Medical advance
- What kind of medical progress can be expected?
- Can we foresee expanded life expectancy and more active seniors?
7. Business
- What kind of business will grow in future?
8. In general
- Can we live in the happier world? Or not?
9. What’s more??
- Anything you want to talk
Atsuta

Dear Kyoto NHK ESS members

This is the announcement of the practice on Nov 7th.
Genre: talk and discussion
Title: Learning plan for English
Procedure
・Make some groups.
1st stage (10-15minutes)
・I distribute memo pads.
・Please write as follows one by one.
・Why do you learn English?
・What is your goal to learn English?
・What do you do to attain your goal?
・Are there any tasks that you must resolve?
Etc...

2nd stage (40-45minutes)
・Share it to your group.
・Discuss how to attain the goal.
・Other members advise the speaker.
Please repeat as above by rotation.
I hope you will enjoy the practice and it will contribute to attain your goal.

Thanks,
Yusuke Ueno