Welcome to Term 3 and the JLTAV Winter Newsletter. I hope everyone had a great Semester 1 and an enjoyable holiday break. I hope the holidays provided an opportunity for you to relax and unwind, and you are refreshed and re-energised for Term 3.
2026 Year 12 Morning Online Session – presented by Dr LuLu Vitali
This event will be held via Zoom on Sunday 23 August from 10.00am to 12.30pm.
Please click on the link below for further information and to register for this event.
This event is open to JLTAV members.
Please note: Schools are asked to register and pay on behalf of their students and staff attending the online session. Teachers and students participating in the session will need to pay the registration fee. The Zoom link will be sent on Friday 21 August to the teacher contact in the registration form who can then forward the link to their students. Please note that this session will not be recorded.
The Year 12 Morning Online Resources will be shared via Google Drive to the teachers who register for the online session during the week beginning Monday 17 August. Please do not forward the link to your students so they can request access to the folder. We are unable to open access to the shared Google Drive folder to students. The link to download the video files has been disabled as the materials are updated each year.
2026 JLTAV Practice Exams
To further support VCE teachers we have created two practice exams. Please click on the link below for information on how to purchase these resources. The resources will be sent to those who have purchased them during the week beginning Monday 17 August.
https://forms.gle/M9kRxEVdEPUNCQaf8
Practice exams from 2020 to 2025 are still available for purchase. Please email jltav@jltav.org.au for information on how to purchase these resources.
We wish all Year 12 students success as preparations for their end-of-year exams increase in Term 3.
2026 Model UN in Japanese
On Friday 24 and Wednesday 29 July our 2026 Model UN Conferences in Japanese will be held. Many thanks to Thi Nguyen from the Department of Education and Training, and Dr Sally Northfield from the United Nations Association of Australia Victorian Division for their support in organising this event. Many thanks also to Satoshi Sanada and Shungo Sawaki who will be the Secretary Generals on each day.
2026 JLTAV Junior Speech Competition
This year’s competition will be held on Sunday 30 August at the Hawthorn Arts Centre.
Please click on the link below for registration information and the set speeches for the competition.
Please find here some advice to teachers to assist in this year’s preparations.
Please note that all contestants (students) and audience members (teachers and family members) require tickets for each division they are participating in or watching. This helps us to allocate the spaces we use for each division of the competition according to the number of registrations. All tickets are free, however, students need to pay the registration fee in order to participate in the competition. Please click on the link below to be taken to the Humanitix website to organise the tickets. The teacher in charge is responsible for organising the tickets on behalf of their school/students/parents. All tickets for contestants and audience members must be organised through Humanitix by Friday 14 August.
https://events.humanitix.com/2026-jltav-junior-speech-competition
Participating schools will be informed of the start and finish times for each division closer to the day of the competition.
Please note that there have been two updates to the Year 9 and 10 set conversation and the Year 9 and 10 set speech.
2026 Junior Speech Competition Judges
The JLTAV Committee is looking for judges for the 2026 Junior Speech Competition. If you are interested in being a judge, please email me at nlane@mackillopsh.vic.edu.au. Being a judge is a valuable professional learning opportunity.
2026 Calligraphy Competition
Our highly successful calligraphy competition will again be held during Term 3. Details of this competition have been included in this newsletter. Many thanks to the schools and students who will support this competition.
Victorian Curriculum 2.0 Units of Work
A group of colleagues are currently writing units of work for Japanese in line with the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 for Languages. The registration form to access these resources will be shared later in Term 3. Thank you to our colleagues for compiling these units of work.
Japanese at Uni promotion videos and information
As students in secondary schools start the subject selection process for 2027, a reminder that two short videos promoting Japanese language education and Japan Studies are available on the JSAA (Japanese Studies Association of Australia) homepage:
The videos are designed to appeal to mid- to senior-secondary level students, with testimonials from current tertiary students, graduates, teachers, and images of university classroom activities. We hope you can utilise them in your classes and for relevant events to promote Japanese language education. We thank the Japan Foundation for their support.
There is also a set of slides “Studying Japanese at Victorian universities” available on the JLTAV website via “Links“.
University Languages Portal Australia (ULPA) is also a useful portal for those interested in studying languages at university.
Looking Ahead – Dates for your Diary
Our 2027 JLTAV Annual Conference will be held on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 March at the Catholic Leadership Centre in East Melbourne.
We are pleased to launch the expression of interest form for presenters at the 2027 JLTAV Annual Conference. We invite all colleagues with an interest to present, and encourage those who have never presented before to consider taking up this opportunity. There are so many inspirational teachers within our community with something to share and this is your chance. The link to complete the expression of interest form is below. Please complete this form by Friday 4 December.
https://forms.gle/kWkW4EYPia1YPwGo6
The JLTAV Committee continue to work hard to organise events throughout the year and I thank them for all their hard work, generosity and commitment to the Association. Contact details of the 2026 committee have been included in this newsletter.
Our events for the JLTAV will be advertised through the following channels:
- The JLTAV website
- The JLTAV Facebook page
- The Japanese Language Teachers of Australia Facebook page
- The Victorian Department of Education Access, Resource, Collaborate (ARC) website
I wish everyone a successful Term 3 and thank you for your support of the JLTAV Inc. Keep warm and healthy over these winter months!
Nathan Lane
President, JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)