16 April 2010

Independent Textbook Publishers


Independent Textbook Publishers

There are a number of these catering to the EFL market in Japan, including course books for conversation-oriented classes taught at university-levels. ELT in Japan will try to add more of these as we find them. Textbook publishers, please submit your website info.


Abax ELT Publishers
http://www.abax.co.jp/index.html
http://www.abax.co.jp/en/catalog/index.html
sales@abax.co.jp

EFL Press
http://www.eflpress.com/
http://www.eflpress.com/books.html

Intercom Press
インターカムプレス

http://www.intercompress.com/
texts@intercompress.com

Matsuka Phonics
http://www.mpi-j.co.jp/store/96.html
http://www.mpi-j.co.jp/store/92.html
http://www.mpi-j.co.jp/store/125.html
http://www.mpi-j.co.jp/store/125.html

Perceptia Press

http://www.perceptiapress.com/index.html
http://www.perceptiapress.com/sample_request.php

Seido Institute
http://www.seido.jp/books/en/index.html

Yasuda Women's University Sexual Harassment Case Raises Serious Issues

Yasuda Women's University Sexual Harassment Case Raises Serious Issues
A story from the Yomiuri Shimbun of March 7, 2010 reports that a male literature professor, aged 52, has been dismissed from his position with Yasuda Women's University over allegations of sexual harassment.

The unusual aspects of the case, as the Yomiuri reports it, include the the following:

-that the professor is a U.S. citizen,

-that the alleged sexual harassment happened in the US while he was supervising students from Yasuda Women's University (Hiroshima, Japan) on a 6-month study abroad program, and

-that the guilt for the alleged sexual harassment was determined based on the content of an e-mail sent in January this year from the alleged victim to a counselor at the university.

Now what is really striking about this story is just how quickly the professor was dismissed and how little evidence is being offered by the institution to support this determination of guilt.

Over the past decade, Japanese universities have often found themselves at the notorious center of society-wide efforts to clamp down on and punish sexual harassment in the workplaces of government, business and education. One reason why so many cases have involved academics is that there are a lot of male academics and researchers in Japan, and there are millions of young women attending universities. Academia here is still dominated by men but now enrolls a lot of women as undergraduate and graduate students, as well as employs them as faculty. So there are plenty of opportunities for men to harass women in universities and colleges here.

Some of these sexual harassment cases have led to the suspension, re-assigment, collegial censure, and firing of the perpetrators. There were even some cases of civil litigation and criminal prosecution.

However, the pattern for dealing with cases involving Japanese male faculty usually resulted in the suspension of the accused until there were detailed and lengthy investigations into the matter. And most punishments amounted to little more than the 'slap on the wrist', even when meted out to inviduals who had decades' worth of abuse allegations listed against them.

If the American professor in this case decided not to contest the accusations, that might account for his firing occurring so quickly. But the article clearly states that the professor denies the allegation. Therefore, one is forced to consider the possibility that this professor has not been given the same rights to defend himself that a Japanese faculty member would get.

We will watch for more information and developments in this story. On the one hand, Japan HEO and ELT in Japan condemn sexual harassment in the workplace and school. On the other hand, we also have to condemn unequal treatment of individuals in such cases because it ruins individual lives and then contributes to wider patterns of abuse of employee rights and discrimination based on race, nationality, ethnicity and culture.

Below is a link to the story at the Osaka edition of the Yomiuri Newspaper online (Japanese language only) followed by a brief excerpt.

http://osaka.yomiuri.co.jp/university/topics/20100307-OYO8T00317.htm

excerpt:
学生にセクハラ 教授を諭旨退職…安田女子大

安田女子大(広島市安佐南区)が、
米国での見学旅行中に女子学生にセクシュアル・ハラスメント(性的嫌がらせ)をしたとして、文学部の米国籍の男性教授(52)を諭旨退職処分にしていたことがわかった。処分は2月15日付。
end of excerpt

 

TEFL in Japan Forum: Japanese publishers of EFL books for self-study/自習のための言語・英語材料の出版社

Japanese publishers of EFL books for self-study
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan


Self-study is really a potential growth market for many publishers, including the ones who dominate university textbooks. So there is potential for overlap with the list of publishers of Japanese EFL university textbooks. More companies will move into self-study materials to try and offset the declining cohorts of young people. Even if university and tertiary enrollment hasn't started to decline yet, it is somewhat stagnant. Perhaps the decline in enrollment has been delayed by the final expansion of the tertiary sector opening up more enrollment slots combined with the fact that more young people stay out of the full-time workforce and in education or training longer. 

I have listed here mostly publishers who didn't make it into the previous list of textbook publishers. English-language pages are rare at these websites, although there are some.

Sunmark even has an online and downloadable catalogue of English-language titles, usually in the areas of 'inspirational' and 'self-help/self-improvement'. Kodansha is a renowned publisher of English-language titles for Japanese language and cultural studies, but is also a major publisher in the Japanese language. The NHK listed here is the publishing arm of the national broadcaster; NHK produces EFL programs for both radio and TV and these have text magazine and textbooks or supplementary materials associated with the program (such as the Dr. Corpus materials). 


ALC, DHC (the publishing arm of the cosmetics and nutritional supplements company) and Z-Kai have carved out niches in correspondence courses, and these have stand-alone self-study books (e.g., on English listening, English reading, TOEIC, etc.) that can be bought and used separately (such as adapted to your own EFL courses).


I have tried to list useful links to get you into the parts of the online listings of EFL-related titles in order to save you time in navigating Japanese-language sites.

The benefits of adapting some of these materials to your university, college and other tertiary-level EFL courses include the following:

(1) These materials will be understood by all students because explanations are in Japanese; 

(2) such materials often contain a lot of tips, hints, coaching advice and motivational material in the language that all students will understand; 

(3) these titles tend to be more practical than the university publishers', although there is a lot of overlap and the trend is toward convergence under the category of 'edutainment' and 'infotainment'; and

(4) these materials are self-contained and self-sufficient (with CDs, DVDs, answer keys), so the learners who are more keen can continue to use them after the course is over.

I have used such self-study materials for TOEIC study classes, and I use bi-lingual screenplays in some General English classes in order to add extensive reading and listening components, areas that have long been neglected in TEFL in Japan.   

ALC
アルク

http://www.alc.co.jp/
http://www.alc.co.jp/eng/index.html
http://shop.alc.co.jp/cnt/bunya/?afcd=leftjs_bunya_top

Chukei 
中経
http://www.chukei.co.jp/
http://www.chukei.co.jp/language/
http://www.chukei.co.jp/language/news.php
http://www.chukei.co.jp/search/index.php?search=1&obj_type=obj_3&category=2&sub_category=211

Cosmic - includes Bi-lingual Screenplays w/DVDs
http://www.cosmicpub.jp/shopdetail/006008000009/
 
英語とEnglishをつなぐDHCの英語講座
English Language Education of DHC
http://www.edu.dhc.co.jp/
http://www.edu.dhc.co.jp/fun_study/
info@edu.dhc.co.jp

DHC English language study materials
http://www.dhc.co.jp/goods/cagoods.jsp?cCode=11218000

DHC English language study materials - bilingual screenplay books
http://www.dhc.co.jp/goods/cagoods.jsp?cCode=11218009

Diamond
ダイヤモンド社
http://www.diamond.co.jp
http://book.diamond.co.jp/

J-Research
有限会社 ジェイ・リサーチ出版
Jリサーチ出版

http://www.jresearch.co.jp/
http://www.jresearch.co.jp/category/books/107/
http://www.jresearch.co.jp/category/books/106/

Kodansha
http://www.kodansha-intl.com/
http://www.kodansha-intl.com/contents/categoryBookList.php?cid=114&c2id=11401
http://www.kodansha.co.jp/
http://www.kodansha.co.jp/english/

Natsume Publishing
ナツメ出版

http://www.natsume.co.jp/
http://www.natsume.co.jp/book/index.php?keyword=%B1%D1%B8%EC&S_FIND_x=%B8%A1%BA%F7&x=31&y=3
http://www.natsume.co.jp/book/index.php?action=show&code=004464
http://www.natsume.co.jp/book/index.php?action=show&code=004491
NHK
https://www.nhk-book.co.jp/shop/main.jsp?trxID=0010
https://www.nhk-book.co.jp/shop/main.jsp?trxID=C1010101&htmlPageCode=08.html
https://www.nhk-book.co.jp/shop/main.jsp?trxID=C2010101&bookCategoryCode=23002
https://www.nhk-book.co.jp/shop/main.jsp?query=&whence=0&sort=score&reference=off&max=10&result=normal&searchCategoryName=01&targetWords=%89p%8C%EA&trxID=C0020101

Obunsha
旺文社
http://www.obunsha.co.jp/
http://www.obunsha.co.jp/shoshi/index.php/search/doSearch?cx=006468615939608868044%3Ayalzetngdoq&cof=FORID%3A9&q=%E8%8B%B1%E8%AA%9E#1521
info@obunsha.co.jp
pr@obunsha.co.jp

Sunmark
サンマーク出版
http://www.sunmark.co.jp/
http://www.sunmark.co.jp/eng/index.html
http://www.sunmark.co.jp/eng/general_catalog.pdf
http://www.sunmark.co.jp/01/rc/genre15.html

Screenplay - Bilingual screenplays, listening, conversation materials
スクリーンプレ
http://www.screenplay.co.jp/

Takarajimasha - Includes Bilingual screenplays w/DVDs
宝島社
http://tkj.jp/
http://tkj.jp/search/?cs=u&fw=%E5%90%8D%E4%BD%9C%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB
http://tkj.jp/search/?cs=u&fw=%E5%90%8D%E4%BD%9C%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E3%81%A7%E8%8B%B1%E4%BC%9A%E8%A9%B1%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA

Z-Kai
Z-会

http://www.zkai.co.jp/home/index.html
http://www.zkai.co.jp/top/daitop.html
http://www.zkai.co.jp/books/index.html
http://www.zkai.co.jp/books/search/list_3.asp
http://www.zkai.co.jp/books/search/list_5.asp#BookInf1
https://www.zkai.co.jp/ca/g/catalog/index.asp
 

11 April 2010

TEFL in Japan Forum: Japanese publishers of EFL textbooks and materials



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