Junko Imai presenting at AILA 2014 in Brisbane Australia

Summer Travel Grant 2014 Recipient

Junko Imai

UH Student Affiliate

I presented a paper, “Needs analysis of peer feedback to design L2 learner training tasks in a college-EAP program,” at the 17th World Congress of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA 2014) in Brisbane on August 14.  As this triennial conference is the most acknowledged in the field of applied linguistics, I luckily had a wide range of international audiences who provided me with their insightful thoughts on my project after my presentation.  I believe their insights will help me polish my paper for future publications.  During the conference, by attending various sessions and staying for lunch and coffee breaks, I was able to met many new people in Australia as well as those from European countries.  I also reconnected with some of my previous colleagues, professors and friends from Hawaii, the mainland US, Canada and Japan.  It was great to catch up with the people I am familiar with from my previous education and profession and to talk about our interests in working together on potential projects .

Junko Imai clip from her presentation

Further to this, this was my first time visiting Australia or the Southern Hemisphere.  In the conference, there were several special displays of unique living wild animals like koala bears.  Fortunately, before this trip, my old Canadian friend’s family introduced me to their cousin or niece who happened to live in Brisbane, so I was able to stay at her place.  The family also helped me experience a variety of Australian living, thoughts and culture.  I really appreciate the EWCA and Hawai’i Chapter’s support for my summer project.  I will work harder to complete my doctoral degree at UH Manoa in this coming semester.

The East-West Center Association (EWCA) and the EWCA Hawaii Chapter provided Travel Grants ($500 each) to 10 current East West Center students in the summer of 2014.