Happy New Year! Welcome to Term 1 and the JLTAV Summer Newsletter. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday break and you are refreshed and energised to start the new school year.
In 2026, we have a range of exciting events planned for teachers and students. We will promote our events through the JLTAV website, JLTAV member email list, Nihongo Victoria email group, the JLTAV and Japanese Language Teachers of Australia Facebook pages, as well as through the Department of Education and Training’s Access, Resource, Collaborate (ARC).
Vale Jill Howie
The JLTAV acknowledges the passing of our valued colleague, Jill Howie. I first came across Jill when I was studying Japanese in high school in the 1990s and we used the textbook she co-wrote with Mioko Wood, Japanese for Senior Secondary Students. This would have to have been one of the few senior secondary Japanese textbooks written for an Australian audience at a time when Japanese language education was growing in schools across Australia. Jill made a significant contribution to this growth through the creation of her textbook resources. When I became a teacher, I had the privilege of working with Jill as an assessor for the VCE oral examinations for Japanese Second Language. Jill worked for a long time at Wesley College and Korowa Anglican Girls’ College, and her students benefitted greatly from her wisdom and passion for Japanese. Jill also generously hosted the JLTAV sushi party at her home for many years. The JLTAV extends our sympathies to Jill’s family and friends at this difficult time.
Advocacy Poster Competition
Thank you to the schools who submitted entries for the 2025 advocacy poster competition. Kristine Thanh Nguyen Ba from Keilor Downs College won the competition. A selection of posters to use in schools can be found on the JLTAV website. Please go to: https://jltav.org.au/services/.
Resource creation
We are fortunate to have amazing colleagues who are willing to share their wealth of knowledge with us. In Term 4, we invited VCE teachers to contribute resources to a shared Google Drive folder. Thank you to the teachers who created resources for this project. The resources are available to all JLTAV members. Please complete the form below in order to access the shared Google Drive folder.
https://forms.gle/MkL4zg9NQsC3ELsf9
Last year our amazing colleague, Yuichi Deguchi, also produced and shared many resources to support the teaching and learning of Japanese. These resources are also available through a shared Google Drive folder. Please complete the form below in order to access the shared Google Drive folder.
https://forms.gle/oVd648kmPackqAbY6
Calligraphy Competition Results
Thank you to the students and schools who supported our 2025 Calligraphy Competition. The ability for students to draw the Japanese scripts in both the brush and pencil categories is most impressive. Please click here for the results of this competition.
In 2025 we had the following number of entries:
Brush: 165 in total
Primary – 60
Secondary – 105
Pencil: 175 in total
Primary – 125
Secondary – 50
2026 JLTAV Annual Conference
We look forward to welcoming colleagues to our 2026 Annual Conference to be held on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 March at a new venue, the Catholic Leadership Centre, 576 Victoria Parade, East Melbourne. Please find here the program for the conference and the registration form here. Many thanks to our amazing colleagues for offering to present sessions at the conference. Through the generosity of our colleagues, we have been able to put together another exciting program for the two days.
Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Friday 27 March from 4.30pm to 5.00pm at the Catholic Leadership Centre. We encourage members to nominate themselves to join the JLTAV committee in 2026. One gains a lot of satisfaction from being involved in the Association and ensuring Japanese language education continues to flourish in Victoria. Please contact me at nlane@mackillopsh.vic.edu.au if you would like further information or you would like to join the committee in 2026.
Sincere thanks to the Department of Education for their great support and for providing a yearly grant to enable us to organise student events and professional learning for teachers. We look forward to the ongoing support from the Department of Education in 2026.
In 2020, we saw a new format for the external examinations for Year 12 Japanese Second Language. To support VCE teachers, the JLTAV produced practice exams from 2020 to 2025. These practice exams are still available for purchase. Please click on the information in this newsletter to place an order. We will be creating and selling practice exams for 2026 and will let colleagues know when orders are open. Later in the year we will also update our Year 12 Morning resources and make these available to JLTAV members. We wish all our VCE students great success in their Japanese studies in 2026.
As we start another school year, it is timely to remind colleagues of the best way to contact the JLTAV. The best email addresses are nlane@mackillopsh.vic.edu.au or jltav@jltav.org.au. Unfortunately the JLTAV Facebook Messenger account isn’t monitored often.
On behalf of the committee, I thank you all for your support of the JLTAV throughout 2025. We wish everyone all the very best for the start of the 2026 school year. Take care and stay safe.
Nathan Lane
President
JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)