>>303 そっだな。俺の尊敬する先生の英語力がどのくらいなのか、俺分かんないよ。 検定とか受けたことないみたいなのだけは確か。自分で言ってたかんな。 その先生の教えてるクラスの生徒が言ってた。 「新出単語の発音をしつこいくらい教えてる。」って。 でも、そのクラスが特に単語に強いわけではない。 ALTが言ってた。 "He is a great teacher in the class, trying to help the students speak English..., but I sometimes don't know what he is talking about."
少なくとも明治のころの学生はほとんどネイティブのように話す英語の先生 より、漱石先生のように文法に精通し、痒いところに手が届くような解釈を 目の前で繰り広げてくれる先生を求めていたそうだ。とは言っても漱石は ベラベラだったとは思わないが、法外にすごい英語力を持っていただろうし、 おまけに Those who Can... だったから教師に甘んじることなく 小説家になったわけだが。
All right. Let's make a list of words we might use in a restaurant, everyone. Any soft drink you want to have? Yes, Takanori, what do you want to say? Oh, you want Kalupis...Sorry, they don't seem to have Kalpis...and that sounds just awful... Oh, yes, Kaori, any contribution? What? You want beer...No way...Underage drinking is strongly prohibited in our society...especially at school.
Anything else, everyone? Oh, yes, Keiko, what have you got? Natto? Um...They don't usually have natto at a restaurant. Eh... they do? The Izakaya you work as a part timer? All right. We might just put the word in the list, then...
Everyone, let's just make 7 groups of four, all right? Oh, Takahiro, you don't want to be in the same group with Yoko? Don't be so mean to her... Well, now we have 7 groups...Takahiro, stop hitting Yoko, please. Good. I am going to give you guys 10 minutes for you to come up with as many words used in a restaurant as possible. In ten minutes, we are going to share the words you make a list of... Oh, no, Chizuru and Tamaki...You can't use Japanese here... Well, are you saying you don't see any good reason we shouldn't speak Japanese since we are all Japanese? Look...This is an English class. We are all here to learn English right?...No?...Then, why do you just keep speaking Japanese!!!
So are you saying you all want me to give you instructions in Japanese? Why is that? All right...first, you don't understand what I am trying to say a bit...and second?...Right... You think I am snobbish... You just wonder why a Japanese like myself is trying to speak English. You think I am showing off or something...NOoooo! Look! This is an English class...
You just can't compare the way they teach at English conversation school with the way we do in prefecture-run senior (junior) highschools. People who get enroled in English schools are motivated to learn however poor their current English skills are, whereas we have to deal with kids AT THAT AGE who are not necessarily motivated... Do I sound like I am making an excuce for doing poor performance?
I said you shouldn't criticize us for not doing the way teachers in English schools do, but probably it may be true that we should get some inspiration from them. We won't lose anything if we go and see how they teach. Actually we can't afford to be so arrogant,saying something like...they are no better than us. Would you like to let us see how you do, you teachers of English convesation schools?
We all have the freedom to criticize each other so there is nothing wrong with criticizing English teachers like yourself. In fact, many English teachers in junior and senior high schools cannot speak good English AND many English teachers are not so good at motivating students. Also, many ALTs are not motivated at alllllll. (Many ALTs should be fired.) On the other hand, teachers in NOVA does not know English Education at all(some of them are like high school students doing part-time job) and not motivated at all.
Are you angry about the fact that (1)not many teachers get to motivate the students to study English (2)not many ALTs care much about what they are doing (3)almost all the Nova instructors are losers back home?...just joking...
My personal favorite teaching methods: Physical response approach (for very young students). Any SKIT(acting) that requies students' creativity(for any age group). Speech(for any age group). & etc.
Most task should b enjoyable even in Japaneseネ.
And I think such methods are frequently used among the very motivated teachers such as myself.......
397, I'm not angry 'cause everyone has the right to be less motivated. May be some less motivated people have family problem or something and it is non of my buisness.
I said many NOVA teacher. Not almost all. This is a huge difference. Obviously, many NOVA teachers are very motivated as well.
But I personally don't like the less motivated ALT and laee motivated English teachers because they r wasting our tax when many people r getting restructured in Japan.
i did, actually im livin in australia n i was usin eng everyday when i go bak to japan 4 holiday. i think eng is necessity if u are or willing to work for foreign firms.
That's perfectly all right, Talking Loser... Wanting to communicate with someone surely gives us motivation to learn more of a language, isn't it? Nice talking to you...though I am one of the lazy English teachers myself you disapprove of... See ya.
403, I'm not a teacher. But sometimes I enjoy teaching.
Obviously, 395 is an expert in English teaching method. So may b u should ask 403 about teaching method.
I don't have my-method. But my previous experience tells me that sessions such as speech, SKIT, or anything to do with presentation and students' creativity helps. And ofcause, communication between schools from different nations should be helpful as well.
Also, singing seems very effective but in singing, u need to b very good at selecting student's taste. But it's nice to sing a song about broken hearted people or whatever.
In any case, doing something that is enjoyable in Japanese should be done in English as wellね
>>410 Talking Loser, thanks for your suggestions. Actually I tried a song... "Sara" from the '80s. I told them to fill in the blanks I made, listening to the music. I was a little worried that they might not like it because it's an old song and so it might not sound COOL for them... It went all right. Then I was too ambitious to make them sing along the CD, which they hated. They don't want to be embarrassed in front of the other students.They are very sensitive about how they look to others.
In the school I work for, we've got a part-time English teacher who is very eager to teach. He loves and cares a lot about his students...but the method he uses is an old traditional 'grammar-translation' method. He uses the way even in his oral communication classes, which is a shame.
After all, it seems (not impossible) but very difficult for a teacher to do something very different from the way he/she was taught in their school days.
By the way 414, did u make your student discuss(group activityね) about the meaning of lyrics for Sara???
And after discussion, did you make some of the student do presentation about the meaning of the lyrics???
I think such discussion and presentation can be helpful even in Japanese 'cause I know many Japanese people who started to love English because of music and lyrics......
By the way, I think one of the reason for many students bing shy is because Japanese teachers r very good at pointing out mistakes which can be discouraging 4 many students.
I think we need more teachers who can encourage students.
>>417 Well, our students probably don't have any clue what the words mean, even after they are explained word by word... You won't believe it until you see them yourself...I wonder why we segregate(?) them according to their academic performance at junior high school. The students with the poorest scores are sent to our school, which means they have very low self esteem, and they are fed up with learning not only English but every other subjects. Poor kids! >>415 I am still learning it and I know it will never be excellent.
>>420 I agree. We all make errors. As you might have noticed it, I make tons of errors... We shouldn't discourage students to use English and have fun.
>>424 Right. Everyone learn differently. Can we offer everyone various classes with different learning styles within the framework of public education?
You are also right in saying that the acitivities should be exciting enough so that they would be enjoyable if they were done in Japanese. Students won't appreciate any activities too childish for them to do.
>>425 Thank you very much for overestimating us. We are not that influential.
The Capital Journal reported that some Kansas educators feel that bilingual education is working in southwest Kansas ("Influx of Hispanic students taxes schools," March 13) Their impressions are in agreement with the scientific research. Scientific studies show consistently that children in bilingual programs throughout the United States acquire at least as much English as those in all-English programs and usually acquire more. Studies also show that children in bilingual programs drop out less than comparison students in all-English programs. When professional and experienced practitioners reach the same conclusions as the results of scientific research, we can be confident in the results: Bilingual education is a good idea.
Stephen Krashen
The article that appeared in the Capital Journal was identical to the article that appeared in the Kansas City Star (see previous post).
What about Canadian language Immersion Program? I am not quite sure about the differnce between Bilingual Program and Immersion Program. I understand they teach two languages in Bilingual program, on the other hand, in Immersion Program, one target language is spoken to teach all the subjects taught in school.
>>427 Don't you feel guilty about teaching shit English? I don't know how many times I wish I started to learn English from scrach. Once you get shit English into your head ,you never be able to change that.
427, If all teachers have very different teaching styles (or use diffferent teaching style on purpose), it's possible to make students choose the class(teacher) . (like in universityね.)
This type of change is possible, if all teachers are willing to help each other and willing to try different methods of organizing class.
Even 小林克也 at one time had to give up speaking English as a native speaker, so I've heard. Do we expect someone like ケント・ギルバート speak like a native speaker of Japanese, namely US? No. It's just very attractive. I mean, a foreign accent...
437, Nobody's attracted to pronunciations. Appearance and character is more important.
For example, if a Korean faggot speaking Korean-English tries to kiss me, I will run away from the disgusting Korean-English Accent. But if beautiful Korean woman try to kiss me, I will love her Korean-English accent.
>>438 Are you saying Americans are never attracted by our Japanese accent? Yeah, you might be right. But do we really have to please Americans by trying to imitate Americans? If...if you can get things done in a foreign language, with or without a heavy accent, you should be proud of you skill of that language.
442 usually, people are not attracted to each other because of their pronunciation skills. BUT American are somtimes pleased to hear my close to native speaker English.
As u know, if a foreigner speaks perfect Japanese, I think it pleases most Japanese.
Are you going to attend the forum? If so, please give us a reaction paper about it.
>>447 Hi, Talking Loser. Is it better for us to use English-English? You mean British English? I've heard that in Australia, where you live, people thought ABC announcers should speak British English back in 50's and actually they hired British people for announcers. But now, as you know so well, Australians take pride in speaking Aussie English and even announcers speak Australian English.
I took English Proficiency Test(the 1st level) a few years ago and passed. As people have pointed it out so many times here, passing the test doesn't mean you are excellent in English. It also doesn't mean you are a great teacher. However, under the current climate of Japan's English education it seems better to have skills good enough to pass it. I didn't give a damn about 英検 before, because of the theory of 'sour grapes.' I once failed in it when I was in the 2nd year of my university.
455, I have never met bad English speaker with 英検1級 qualification. I'm sure that 1級 level means ur English is excellent. (But in buisness I think 準1級 is good enough. )
As for teaching, I think 英検1級 people's way of teaching is not necessarily as good as their English level.
Don't slam Lam on phonics March 17 Published in Newsday
Newsday reported that fired Deputy Schools Chancellor Diana Lam had "been criticized for choosing a reading program for the city curriculum that struck experts as out of step with the latest research, and with new federal standards" ["Klein fires top deputy," News, March 9].
The reading program Lam recommended was indeed in conflict with the report of the National Reading Panel, which came down on the side of heavy, intensive phonics. But several highly regarded scholars have disagreed with the results of that report.
There is agreement that including some phonics is helpful, but the federal standards require much more phonics than is necessary or useful.
Lam's position may be out of step with the federal government, but it is in agreement with the view of many respected scholars and experienced teachers.
Stephen Krashen Editor's Note: The writer is professor emeritus of education at the University of Southern California.
>>458 Our ALT is a great reader. She is now reading "Alchemist" at the moment. I'm reading "Sula" which is about a black woman back in the 30's. I used to read a lot but I am too stressed out to read now.
>>459 >Much more phonics than necessary... I honestly don't know what it's all about. In Japan someone...well, Dr.松香? started Matsuka phonics. I am not quite sure but I think she stresses the importance of learning the rules between the pronunciation and spelling especially for the beginners of learners of English as a foreign language...
>>456 >I have never met bad English speaker with 英検1級 qualification.
Hello again, Talking Loser. Actually 英検1級 qualification doesn't guarantee that he/she is a good speaker. I know they have to go through an interview test but lots of people prepare some speeches and memorize them. You can choose a topic which you want to make a short speech on. All you have to do is just write dozens of speeches and learn them by heart!
>>346 Thanks for telling us about an interesting site. Sorry for thanking you any earlier. Actually I didn't know you gave us the informantion that I had asked you guys about. I just read this thread again and found it, which was very informative and interesting.
If I had enough time, I wouldn't mind attending the seminar. Actually, we have so many other things to worry about besides polishing our English. There is a proverb which describes how we all feel. Here it goes; You can't teach an old dog a new trick. If they have money to spend on us, they should use it on someone younger so that the money will be worthwhile. Well, am I falling into a negative thinking? Sorry, I've been silly. English teachers should keep brushing up our English in our own way whether we are forced to attend the seminar or not.
460, I didn't take 1級test so I don7t know much about the test but I know about 10 people with 1級 level and they all speak excellent English. Have u ever met anybody with 1級 and speaks bad English?? I don't think so.
If say 98% of the 1級 people have excellent verbal skills I think it means that 1級 people's verbal English is excellent. (I'm not talking about rare exceptional 2% or so of the 1級people. )
>> 463 Talking Loser, By the way, why is your nickname Talking Loser? You don't seem to be a loser at all...on the contrary, you work with computer savvy nerds, you might be one...living in Australia. You sound like a successful businessman!
Well, you might be right. You know 10 people with the 1st level proficiency qualification , none of whom are poor speakers. You live abroad and get to know a lot of Japanese who do business using English. Obviously people you mingle with are excellent users of English, and some of them may have the qualification all right...
Most of us live in Japan and rarely have opportunities to speak in English, which makes it rather hard for us to keep up with our fluency. Oops! I've started making excuses for not being fluent again. Now it is the time we can learn a foreign language and maintain it, even living in Japan. We have our Cable TV, CDs, the Internet, and all that.
Dr. W. Chao is correct to be concerned about the presence of "English fever" that exists in many countries ("Is it conscionable for Chinese to immerse in an 'all English' environment?" March 18). I have argued that children can develop more than adequate English competence with well-taught English programs in school combined with the availability of good libraries. There is no need for total immersion, and only a modest amount of time needs to be set aside for English if the pedagogy is right. In addition, there are strong arguments for providing a solid education in the first language. (See my article, "English fever" posted on http://www.sdkrashen.com.)
But Dr. Chao has been misinformed about English in the United States. Immigrants from Mexico do not merely speak " a splatter of English in various degrees of sophistication." Studies show that Mexican immigrants to the United States are acquiring English very rapidly, as quickly as other groups. According to the most recent census (2000), among those who spoke Spanish at home, 72% said they spoke English "very well" or "well." The percentage of proficient English speakers among those who spoke Chinese at home was identical, and both were only slightly lower than the percentage of proficient English speakers among all those who spoke another language at home (77%).
In addition, studies consistently show that children of immigrants to the United States of all backgrounds report higher competence in English than in the "heritage language" by the time they are in high school. In fact, we often see language shift happen in one generation: Children may enter school dominant in Spanish but by the time they reach high school they are barely able to communicate with their grandparents in Mexico.
>>466 >we often see language shift happen in one generation
Yeah, we often see that happen. In our school district we have many Brazilians and Peruvians working at Japanese factories. They struggle to get by with their limited Japanese, whereas their children have started speaking Japanese much more fluently than Portugese or Spanish. Although they speak fluent Japanese, they still have apparent difficulties with academic terms in Japanese, therefore they do not accomplish as much academic achievement as they would do if they were raised in a monolingual setting. 外国籍のお子さんは、大変なことが色々ありそうです。
Excuse me! I should have written in English. Have you already enrolled for the conference held at Big Site next Sunday? I'm looking forward to seeing you all there. I'm sure you will be surprised if you hear Mr. Yoshida speak English.
>>470 You must be talking about「英語が使える日本人」の育成のためのフォーラム 2004. Can we still go? I mean, if there are so many of us, there aren't going to be enough seats! Yeah, those bilingual people speak two languages like native speakers. I wonder what is their internal language... Which language do they use in their mind when they are trying to think?
>>472 What was your question? You don't know those two sentences mean? I think she didn't do anything to stop the baby crying all night. Probably she thought it would be better for the baby to cry without being pampered or something... I think the second sentence means just like what you translated.
Have you ever taught your students only in English? Me? No. Whenever I try, I fail to go on doing it somehow. It's also true that we can save time to explain things in Japanese. ALTs can pretend not to be able to speak Japanese. They usually speak it, not like fluently but just well enough to get by. There is no point in trying to avoid using Japanese for our(Japanese English teachers') part, it seems to me. What do you think?
>>478 I do teach only in English Every day. I think your problem is because you want to explain grammatical affairs. What do you want to teach? Communication? Grammar? It really depends on that. I recommend you Prof. Yoshida’s book ”日本語を活かした英語授業のすすめ”
>>479 Thanks for your reply. So you teach only in English. Oh, that's great. You must be a great speaker of English and also your students must be very good to let you do that. My problem? It's a bit too strong. It is perfectly all right for me to use Japanese if it serves our students better that way. Both communication and grammer are equally important in our school curriculum, and we've got to do both. They are not two separate things. Without grammar, it is sometimes difficult to make ourselves understood. However, it will be just about rules and no fun if we stick to grammar too much. We've got to be somewhere in between.
Speaking of English teachers' seminar forced to take part in by the MEXT (Monbu-kagaku-shou), I voluntarily attended it because the other English staffers had refused to. All the sessions were managed by native speakers who were dispatched by a certain company. They put emphasis the so-called "business English" such as presentation, debate and discussion. I know these skills are usually taught at foreign junior schools, but the point is that some of the lecturers claimed that they didn't know how English has been taught at junior or senior high school.
>>481 What you did at the seminar---"business English" sounds fun and I don't see anything wrong about doing it in itself...However, as you said, there doesn't seem to be any strong ties between that and what we've got to do in classes every day. The instructors at the seminars should have done some homework and should have known the current situations of Japanese English education, shouldn't they?
As you know, this year (I mean this ACADEMIC year) is the very first year for English teachers to take part in this type of seminar. I guess officials of Teachers' Instruction Divisions or whatever who are in charge didn't have enough time to make a suitable plan, and that they decided to have a certain company make one. In other words it was up to the company what they would do in the seminar. Marunage is the best Japanese word for conveying its shade. Anyway, I did a role of a car dealer in a session and in another session I explained why the sales of CDs were plummeting.
The MEXT has ordered all the English teachers to attend it within five years, which seems impossible to me.
>>483 Thank you for your report. It seems that you enjoyed doing the role-playing game, thought the acivity does not have a direct connection with improving English teachers' teaching skills. How about the other people's reaction?
The teachers chosen to attend the seminar the next school year, starting this April will be given a more suitable plan the one last year.
You say it seems impossible. Why is that? First year, say, 10% of the whole teachers attended it. Next year, probably more people are going to be told to go... The number of teachers who are told to go might increase year by year, then everyone might be wound up attending it in the end, in four years' time. Who knows?
In Kenneth Goodman's contribution to the debate on phonics instruction (March 30), he commented on the National Reading Panel's conclusion that intensive systematic phonics instruction was the best path. Goodman noted that "The research the panels summarized excluded 95 percent of the important reading research ... It represented the whole field from A to B - not A to Z as claimed."
Goodman is absolutely right. But it should also be pointed out that the panel did not even do a good job on A to B. Critics have noted that in many studies the panel used as evidence, intensive phonics was compared to doing nothing (Gerald Coles), and reanalyses of the same studies examined by the panel showed a much weaker impact of intensive phonics than claimed (Gregory Camilli) and no significant impact of intensive phonics on reading comprehension tests after grade 1 (Elaine Garan).
There is agreement among nearly all reading specialists that including some phonics is helpful, but the US government is pushing much more phonics than is necessary or useful.
>>484 I talked with other attendants at the seminar, and they all agreed on the point that only ten-day sessions would never improve their English abilities. In some sessions we learned some tips to improve our teaching technique and got some useful teaching materials, but what lecturers sent off by a company were talking about was abstract. I'm not knowledgeable about linguistics.
At my workplace, there are seven JTEs including me. In fact there are only two staffers who can communicate with the ALT. I sometimes feel it difficult to act as an interpreter almost all the time. Especially when I explain complicated matters such as the school curriculum and the criteria for grading, which even in Japanese I think hard. The other staffers except the two seem to avoid talking with the ALT beacuse they are afraid of making mistakes before other teachers. Some think of themselves as a club advisor rather than an English teacher and they are sure to make an excuse, claiming they are too busy with the club activities to attend the seminar. It will take more than ten years to force all JTEs to attend it.
>>486 Good evening. I understand the seminar this year itself wasn't as informative as it was expected to be but I hope some people recognized the necessity of brushing up our English and got reinspired by excellent speakers like you.
I know it takes lots of courage to make errors in front of other English teachers but I think once they all realize that we all make errors... [it is natural to make errors to some extent and we shouldn't feel uncomfortable about it], then they will start trying to speak English.
>>486 Thank you for your quick response. I often ask the ALT how many grammatical mistakes I have made during the conversations, which makes her uncomfortable. I sometimes cynically say to her that I have been diagnosed with AGOS (Aquired Grammar-Obssesed Syndrome). Anyway, I'm glad to learn that there are people who feel the same way.
As a matter of fact, I feel the same way. I mean I have the syndrome, too. But I try to forget about it. Accuracy is important, that's for sure, but the amount of information DOES count, doesn't it?
As an English teacher, I also know it is important to know the grammar... It seems to me ACCURACY and FLUENCY are two extremes. If you are careful about correctness of what you say, you say less. If you want to say a lot of things in a short period, you are prone to make errors. We need to see a good balance of those two things. I am sorry about all my errors! See ya.
Accuracy in front of a big audience =low security=form based communication Fluency in conversations in pairs or in small groups=high security=context based communication
<<490 Hello. I am not sure what you mean. Could you explain it a bit please?
"If a student is advised to tell a story in a big class with all the other students listening to him/her, and if the accuracy of their speech is stressed on too much, then, they do not feel safe... Form-based communication should be avoided as much as we can as a teacher..." Have I paraphrase it all right?
>>491 No. I wanted to, but I have other things to do. Tell us what you think about it...
>>493 All right,493. I'll be waiting for you to say what you've got to say about it. I've been away (not in a prison) for a few days before the storm comes. The storm of course means the first term of the new school year. In a hotel I stayed at, I watched TV and found them saying something about teachers' proficiency in English. Could you elaborate on it and give us your feedback about the forum.
>>521 Hi, Yukiko. You didn't use the book carefully and now it's got a lot of scribbles on it? You don't really feel embarrassed about it, I think. Why don't you hand it down to your collegue, saying what you explained here? They will understand, I'm sure.
>英検準一級未取得"英語で授業可能な教師は少数 >>502 I found it very interesting. Those teachers who haven't got the prep-1st English proficiency (or lower) qualification canNOT teach English in ENGLISH?! Is it a problem? I wonder?
Most of us do NOT teach English using English anyway, whatever qualification we might have. ALTs might be able to teach only in English. It's their strong point and they should stick to that, whereas Japanese English teachers' strong points are (1)they can use Japanese and (2)that they know what it is like to learn English in Japan, where most of the people speak only Japanese, namely to know what it's like to learn a language as a foreign language. Japanese English teachers should make the best advantage of their strong points and use their expertise rather than trying to speak only English in classes with their limited English. What do you think?
>510, People with Toeic score of 900点 is usually a very fluent speaker of English. On the contrary, people with TOEIC score of 700点 or lower usually cannot speak good English.
And usual people(kids and parents) want their English teachers to speak fluent English.
By the way, I think many ALTs in Japan tends to be lazy. (May be this is because their salary doesn't change no matter how hard they work... There is no evaluation system that can affect their salary or position. )
So I was wondering, do you do something to make them work harder??? (I hear stupid rumurs like ALTs are often used only as a pronunciation machine or something. )
>>532 Wrong. ALTs are not lazy because "their salary doesn't change no matter how hard they work". They are lazy because their salary doesn't change no matter how lazy they are. They are paid more than enough already. In fact they are paid much more than most of the 非常勤講師s who are asked to do much more jobs than the ALTs.
And it's not just a rumor but somatimes there is an ALT who is not willing to do anything at all. All we could get the person to do is just read something and we have to give the person a full scenario for that. It's all so tiring and simply a waste of time but sometimes we just gotta do what we gotta do.
>>352 I say to our ALTs that I will write a recommendation letter when they leave. They usually want me to write something good about them, so they don't get to slack. It usually works. Why don't you try?
>>533 You sound very frustrated with your ALTs. Some of them are good and some of them are bit lazy. I agree. Most of them are fresh out of university and still very young. They want to enjoy their life in Japan. We've got to understand that.
>>533 I know how you feel because sometimes I feel the same way. ALTs come and go in a few years. They don't get used to our way of doing things. By the time they do, it's about the time they are going home. We have to find a good place for them to live, tell them to pay the rent. They sometimes complain about their rooms, how much they have to pay to their landlords...especially their key money and thank-you-money, which they don't really see why they've got to pay because it is not their culture to pay that sort of things. We've got to be tolerant to their transitional period, when they sometimes get very resentful about a lot of things. It's always the same things all over again, when a new ALT gets on board... So tiring and unrewarding! I actually exactly know what you mean.
>>534 If you are in charge of ALTs, the letter thing may work. But if you are just a part-time or substitute teacher, you have no way to recommend or make a complaint about them.
You could only say something to the 教科主任. But in my experience things never get better or worse in any way. I mean, if you keep telling that you are not satisfied with the ALT's performance, you'll be treated as a troublemaker.
"Everybody can do it. So why can't you?" That's what my boss said when I made a fuss about one ALT. So I gave up. Either me and my classes are lucky or unlucky, I'm just gonna appleciate the luck or simply put up with the misfortune for some time.
I attended the forum by the MEXT last Sunday and I attend the second afternoon session titled "What qualifications should JTEs have to require and with them how they encourage students to study harder in class." According to a reporter there, JTEs who have taken in-service training are more motivated to teach students eagerly. In the session some sequence of the video was projected on the screen and I saw a teacher teaching Junior high school students by using only English. Chosen as a sample teacher, she was forced to take the pre-second test in the STEP test and passed it. She later decided to give lessons in all English. I guess two factors made her made such a decision: The in-service traing and a teacher who is in charge of the same year and has passed the 1st grade in the STEP test. I think any in-service training should not be forced on us, but if you engage in any in-service training voluntariy, it will sure to stimulate you to study harder.
>>541 The exact translation for the session is “English Abilities Required for English Teachers and How to Use their Abilities Efficiently” ISHIDA Masachika: Professor at Seisen University
>>540 Yeah, it all depends on the ALT, doesn't it? Some are very helpful and eager to do lots of things to make a change in teaching English. Others are just there, not wanting to do anything beyond what they are asked to do. Same things can be said about Japanese English teachers. You seem to think you cannot do anything to make a complaint. Actually you can talk to the people in charge of ALTs at the board of education. If your 教科主任 is just lazy, you can talk to someone above. You should make it clear why you are not happy with your ALTs. Any particular incident you can remember? ie.,You asked him/her to do something but he/she was just lazy and said "No" or something. Be specific and you should write down the date it happened.
>>541 Thank you for your report. The female teacher who took the in-service training was inspired to learn English more and passed the 1st grade STEP test? It tells that complacence makes us lazy, doesn't it? I mean, if you learn that your English has still room for some improvement, you'll start trying again...
Now available for downloading, from http://www.sdkrashen.com: "The acquisition of English by children in two-way programs: What does the research say?"
>>536 Are you going abroad instead of trying to be an English teacher? Do you think you should have English proficiency good enough to pass the 1st grade STEP test? There aren't many job openings now so the competition seem to be quite keen and you should be pretty good to be an English teacher... I feel very sorry about the situation. Someone like yourself who is determined to be a good teacher cannot get into the workforce because of the wrong policy of the local educational board a few decades ago. They hired too many people to suffice the need of teachers in newly founded schools to let all the baby-boomers' children take secondary education.
>>545 You are right, but only in the theoretical way, I think. Yes, I could ignore my just-let-it-be-and-wait-and-see boss and take the issue directry to the board of education. But then you're gonna have to expect that people, not only at the board of education but the teachers at your school, might talk that you are a difficult person to work with.
"Who complaint about what" kind of gossips spread quickly and may hurt your reputation badly. It might make it harder for you to find a new place to work when the current contract is ended.
I'm a part-time worker and need to make a new contract each year. And must find a new school to work in every few years. I can't take any risks. I need my job.
>>548 It's hard, isn't it? You are such a good speaker of English so I suggest that you talk to your ALT about what you think. When they learn how much you care about your students, and how seriously you want to change the way English is taught at your school, hopefully they might change... ALTs get lazy, when Japanese teachers themselves get lazy... I don't mean you are lazy. On the contrary you are a hard-working teacher, but unfortunately part-timers are not necessarily taken seriously when they make complaints... I wonder what you can do... Can anyone give him some good advice???
Nat Hentoff ("The puppet chancellor," March 25) should not believe everything Diane Ravitch says about education. Ravitch is highly critical of the reading program Diana Lam selected for New York City and thinks that she should have gone with the "scientifically proven" programs backed by the federal government, an assessment that Hentoff clearly agrees with.
The feds have been relentlessly pushing "intensive, systematic phonics," an extreme approach to reading instruction that is in conflict with the conclusions of a number of highly respected scholars as well as the experience of a vast number of teachers. These professionals think that the scientific evidence is much more consistent with Lam's choice, a program that includes less phonics, but still a substantial amount. There is, in other words, more to the story than Hentoff presents. For readers who want to see what the other side has to say, I recommend a collection of papers edited by Richard Allington with the appropriate title Big Brother and the National Reading Curriculum: How Ideology Trumped Evidence, published by Heinemann.
Samuel Huntington ("The Hispanic challenge," March/April, 2004) claims that bilingual education programs in the US now authorize cultural maintenance, and, "as a result, children are slow to join mainstream classes" (p. 38). False. Nearly all bilingual education programs in the United States are transitional, their goal being rapid acquisition of English. Also, despite the negative press it has received, bilingual education, whether transitional or maintenance, has been very successful in helping children acquire English. Studies show that English learners in bilingual programs acquire at least as much English as similar children do in all-English immersion programs, and generally acquire more.
Huntington also claims that "Spanish-language advocates" are actively trying to change the US into a bilingual society. I am an active member of state and national bilingual education associations in the US: Any movement toward making the US bilingual is imperceptible. Our goal is to help all children become literate in English: We have discovered ways of using the first language in ways that help children acquire English more quickly and do better in school. This is the primary goal.
It is also highly desirable to promote and develop the primary language: Research confirms that those who develop their "heritage language" show superior cognitive development, have increased job opportunities, and benefit more from the wisdom of their heritage culture. There is no movement, however, to force monolingual English speakers in the US to become bilingual. Those "Hispanic leaders" that Huntington quotes who claim "English is not enough" represent an extremist view.
Stephen Krashen, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Rossier School of Education University of Southern California
When I told a native speaker of English that "R" and "L" sometimes (not always) sound just same to me, she said she didn't believe it because I can pronounce them all right. I don't think I will ever perfect...but since I can produce those sounds well, I don't have to feel guilty to do "Repeat after me," to my students. There is a critical period to learn sounds, I've heard. Well, if you are past 8 years of age, it's too late or something. Some people are gifted in languages and they can learn to speak a foreign language without making errors when they are well past the critical period. There are some exceptions to the rule...but If most of us, more than 90% of us cannot learn certain things, then, why bother? Maybe, we shouldn't feel ashamed of our English heavily influence by our first language. As an English teacher, of course, I try to make as few errors as possible, when I talk to our students in the language, but why don't we just use it and get things done using it, and most of all, have fun? Do you think it a good idea?
I don't think I'm a good speaker of English, either. However,the ALT has chosen me as a partner when recording a tape for OC exams. She says I am a good speaker,but I know I often make mistakes grammatically and phonetically. I have told her to correct me instantly if I make any mistakes. But she says she doesn't notice grammatical mistakes such as the choice of articles when she talk to anybody. In the forum by the MEXT, a certain teacher gave a mock lesson on the stage. He was fluent in English, but he made several mistakes when he spoke to students spontaneously. We need to be honest in class. We need to tell student we might make grammatical mistakes beforehand. But at least we must not make mistakes in Classroom English, which is just a collections of phrases used when giving directions. Don't be afraid of making mistakes.
The Register is correct: There is strong and consistent evidence that library quality and reading scores are related ("Librarians cut despite focus on reading," March 30). Moreover, for many children of poverty, the school library is the only source of books; research shows that children from low-income families have far fewer books at home, and live in neighborhoods with inferior public libraries and with fewer book stores.
There are, however, some obvious solutions, even in these days of severe budget problems: First, reduce standardized testing to only those tests that are truly helpful and essential. Instead of spending all our money on weighing the animal, we should spend some money on feeding it.
Second, we should restrict investments in new technology to only those innovations shown to be worthwhile. For the price of a few computers, we can put a lot of books in a school library.
We need to be fiscally conservative, and invest our limited funds on what is known to be effective. School libraries are a sure thing.
>>545 Then, you attended the forum? Did they do a mock lesson on the stage? Wow! I'd be very nervous. Aren't they brave? I think you are modest. I can tell you are an excellent speaker by the way you write.
Speaking of an OC test, it's a pain in the neck. It's difficult to find time to record because everyone seems to have their free time in different periods. Say, we might say, "Let's get the recording done in the 2nd period," then, one of us, including the ALT, say "We've got other things to do. Can we do it later?" One of the teachers started saying that he doesn't want to make a recorded listening comprehension test any more. I kind of agree with him to a certain extent but if we keep decreasing jobs we've got to do with our ALT, I am afraid someday, we'll have nothing.
>>557 We don't deal with that problem, that's for sure. The boards of education throughout the country should deal with it. I'd like to ask YOU a question. What do you mean by bad teaching?
The Times ("The long road to fluency, April 3) maintains that Prop 227 accomplished its goal of "prodding children to learn English," suggesting that they weren't interested before. Nonsense. It is also nonsense to claim that English-only policies have produced significant improvements. The recent "increase" in test scores may be due simply to the fact that the state has administered the same test for several years in a row, a test that is closely linked to state standards, well-known to teachers. The higher scores may be due to increased familiarity with the test and test preparation.
The only way to evaluate the effectiveness of a program is to use scientifically controlled studies. Bilingual education has been a consistent winner in these studies: Students in bilingual education acquire English at least as quickly as comparison students in all-English programs, and usually acquire it faster . Bilingual programs are designed to use the first language in a way that accelerates English language development, and they have been successful in doing that.
Hello. You don't seem to know the situation. I bet you are not a teacher yourself. It strikes me a lot that so many people are still resentful about the way they were taught English when they were students. I am a teacher but I can relate to you because my English teachers gave us the notorious grammar-translation method, which didn't serve us right. I mean, we didn't get to speak it, use it properly. English was a dead language like Latin taught in school in the early 20th century. We felt as if we were decoding hidden documents or something. It was interesting in itself but far from the joy of communicating with someone else. I don't want to say our teachers back then were just incompetent, but their method does not meet the demand of today, when airplains will take us anywhere within 24 hours and we enjoy the development of the Internet... The problem is the rest of the world has changed a lot but most of us still stick to the old way of teaching English.
I started saying you don't seem to know the situation, but I forgot to say how. I am an English teacher working at a highschool run by the local government. Our direct boss is the principal and vice-principal. Theoretically they can come and observe our classes any time but usually they come just twice a year. They are also kind enough to tell us that they are coming and observe.
They've also introduced "Self Evaluation System", which makes us evaluate our own performance. Our bosses are told to write some advice about how we can improve our teaching, how we should dicipline our students, and the stuff.
You seem to think that we can get away without being evaluated, but it is wrong. Some teachers can even be detained for various reasons. One of them is of course they can't teach their students efficiently. Some teachers are told to stay away from school because of their inappropriate behavior, such as corporal punishment, obscene remarks they made and so on. Anyway it's not so easy to be a teacher!
>>557 The problem is that teachers who are not good at teaching in class but are good club advisors are often regarded as good teachers by their principal. As English teachers are screened by the board of education mainly based on the result of the English exam, we JTES should deserve to be an ENGLISH teacher, not CLUB advisors. We should voluntarily attend in-service training to improve English abiliteis as well as teaching techniques. In fact, I haven't felt any kinds of 'pressure' from the boss, but I do feel other teachers (including those teaching other subjects) have noticed how fluent (or terrible) my English is. The ALT with whom I work once said some students had asked her whether Mr. X could speak English. Mr.X is an English teacher, but always tries to avoiding her.
What about being a club advisor of the English club? It would be fun to let them perform plays, make speeches and enter a contest or just have free discussions in English?
Well, there are lots of teachers like Mr. X. They simply don't think English teachers should be able to make themselves understood in English.
562 i understand that many teachers need to work real hard doing tons of job that just doesn7t relate to teaching. For example, club activity, going to love hotel or something to look for students, preparing for school activity and etc. And of cause many teachers work very hard to prepare for classes.
What I meant by evaluation is extra-bonus or reduction of salary or any kind of evaluation system that influences your income. May be 5 to 10% of your income.........
For instance, if the whole school didn't do well, all teachers in that school should have their salary or bonus reduced.
BUT on the other hand, i understand that it is very difficult to evaluate. But some evaluations are possible like improvement of English based on qualifications you acquired, result of your student's speech contests, club activity, other qualifications, and most importantly student's entrance exam results. (I think its better to evaluate in many different ways. )
I guess you should know better about what clear improvements can be made for English teachers.
Honestly I don't have any clue what to do . That's why I call myself CT (clueless teacher). You know that most of us are public workers. There might be some people who work for private schools among the teachers who exchange their opinions in this thread, though. That kind of evaluation system you are talkig about is not the thing we are accustomed to. You said that what kind of universities we send our students to could be an important factor by which we get evaluated. Am I right? It's almost impossible to say that it is us, their English teachers from their high school which does credit to if some of our students fortunately get into prestigious universities such as To◎yo university or Ke◎o university or certain medical schools.
Also as I mentioned it before, at Japanese highschools, students are all segregated according to their academic level from their junior highschools, which means students at higher-level high schools are naturally closer to the success of their university admission. For example, a shcool I work for is one of the lowest schools. Most of the students become part-time workers when they finish school. They don't go to universities. Then, do you think we should be paid less than the teachers who work at the higher-level highschools?
CT, I think when you evaluate, previous years' result is always important. 'cause, as you mentioned, some schools are always good and some are always bad. (So in my company, previous year's sales is always an important factor when judging people's performance. )
So may be last year only 1% of students went to a good university and only 60% of students attended class in a regular basis. And you had 800 in Toeic score.
If this figure changes to 10% of students: good uni 80 % of students: good attendancy & you got 950 in toeic score, this is clearly a big improvement.
I think how long you worked is also very important. 'cause usually the longer you work the more you understamd about organising activity, teaching, punishing student and etc....
>>569>>570 Thanks for elaborating your opinion. Now I know what you mean. We should try best at the place we are thrown into. As I said before most of our kids become part-time worker without trying hard. They don't want to study further so it's pointless to push them to go to uni but at least teachers could encourage them to take more stable, full-time jobs... >>570 So, you are for our seniority system, aren't you. What you say is partly right. Every workforce wants experienced workders, doesn't it? We have our unique problems about our EXPERIENCED teachers. Most of us were hired in the 70's, 80's, when children of baby boomers started to go into high schools. It was difficult to fail in the employment exams back then....
There are so many experience teachers now so that there are few openings for young teachers fresh our of uni. Idealistically there should be some older teachers, some middle-aged teachers, and some younger teachers students can easily relate to, but in reality we've got 'experienced' teachers in their 40's and 50's. Something isn't just right about the situation.
Also there is another issue about our English teachers on the older side. They usually don't quite feel comfortable about 'communicative approach,' MEXT seems so eager to introduce... The older you get, the more difficult it is for you to change... You know what I mean?
Sen. Kennedy apparently feels that the only thing wrong with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is that it is underfunded ("Kennedy demands full funding for school bill," April 7). NCLB should never have been passed. All educators agree that assessment is necessary and important, but NCLB imposes excessive and unnecessary testing on children. All reading specialists agree that teaching basic phonics is helpful, but NCLB imposes far more phonics teaching than research and common sense support. NCLB does nothing to provide real help for children, but it does provide real help to the testing and textbook publishing industry.
Dr. Krashen seems to be for bilingual education and against monolingual education, which seems to deprive the kids with non-English background of their opportunity to learn their parents' culture and language... 'No Child Left Behind' sounds very nice but actually it is monolingual education, according to the professor. I don't know which is right. First generation still know part of their parents' culture and language but I don't know about the second and the third... Is it wrong to let the things take their own course?
Yesterday my friend and I were talking about English education in Japan. Both the guy and myself are teachers at a public senior high school. He is pointing out that the divide between haves and have-nots are getting bigger and bigger. The richer people send their very young kids to English schools or hire English tutors for, whereas poor people send their children to public high schools where English education starts when kids become 12 years old. According to him, it will make a huge difference. He insists the very good thing about Japanese public education WAS give equal opportunity to everyone, poorer or richer but that it cannot give good enough education (especially English) any more. Hmmm. He also said local government should hire more ALTs and let them take more resposibilities of their role as teachers. More ALTs? Well, it doesn't look like a rosy future for us...
Seems like all the teacher are having a hectic life. It's been quiet and slow here... I am a homeroom teacher of the first year now. Sooooo busy. I can't believe it! The students are still rather good and they behave themselves. A boy spotted smoking in my class got a detention but other than that everything is going all right. There are more than 15 students who are from broken families, or single-parent family. Their life is pretty tough. How can I be of any help to them... I wonder... As for their English, some of them don't even know the alphabets. I've got to stick with fundamentals. I hope they don't have any hard time learning English with me, which is quite difficult. They've already developed the sense of rejection toward learning English from junior high school days. I'll try to entertain them by using lots of games, songs...
>>581 I haven't tried "shadowing" in my lessons yet. As I listen to the news of CNN or AFN, I sometimes try to do shadowing what they say...I feel the muscles around my mouth are trained to suit English sounds that way... although I'm not so sure that it does any good to increasing my vocaburary. For students, I suggest we let them try "read and look up." Actually I did that in my class, and it worked out fine.
I did it again! A few days ago, our ALT said something like BLESSED... I asked her, "What? Breast???" I went nearly to a bad example of sexual harrassment!
Shadowing itself is a fine way of learning English, but I am not so sure if it's suitable for students not so motivated as adults who are desperate to gain high scores, like TOEIC 900 or something.
>>587 I know some people are critisizing them for being so careless and causing so much trouble and maybe making the government pay a lot of money for them... It is not altogether wrong to say that but I personally feel very glad to find that they are safe and sound.
>>589 Yeah, I know what you mean. It is very weird for someone on the train to mumble English. I would be embarrassed too. It's not COOL at all... Is there any way to improve our English without becoming a weirdo?
Yeah, I wound like to ask them what they mean by that too. "Communication ability" and "MORE practical communication ability?" What's the difference...I wonder. If someone is good at writing English, and he/she can write business letters to get their jobs done, they don't have to be able to speak English... Am I right? If a scientist who can't write nor speak English, but his/her English is good enough to read and understand someone's thesis (academic paper), then, it is probably all right and we can say that thay guy's English is quite practical and communicative, although communication might be a little too one-sided... What I want to say is everyone should be able to acquire the level of English which would suit to what they want to do with THEIR English.
>>595 It seems that way... The guideline of English education has changed a lot. I am not so sure, so you've got to ask someone else. All I know is that the advisable hours of English classes per week became 4 to 3 in junior high schools throughout Japan in the 80's, then around the time you were in junior high, they made English textbooks (authorized by MEXT) thinner and slimmer, saying that they used to teach students too detailed and complicated grammatical matters and we should lift too much pressure of from junior high school kids. It is called 「ゆとりの教育」
I wonder if "shadowing" is also good for the learners of other language. Say, Americans who are learning Japanese... Is it effective for them to do "shadowing" JAPANESE???
>>605 I know. That was exactly what we did in my previous school, which is actually a pretty good school, at least so people believed in the district. At that time, To◎yo university started to give applicants a listening comprehension test, so we chose "Oral communication B," the subject which focused on students' listening comprehension, not "Oral communication A" nor "Oral communication C," which focused on speaking ability, discussions ability, respectively. It was also our idea that learning grammar and doing grammar drills were something we could not avoid doing because almost all of us are speakers of English as a foreign language. We just don't learn them naturally. Some teachers may have stressed upon grammar too much and igrored oral communication. I should say I was one of them... I'm now trying to change, though.
>>606 I sometimes wonder what you wonder. A man probably from England??? asked me direction once when I was trying to get on a train at the station. JUST ONCE... After high school, you don't need it unless you decide to study in a university or you want to study abroad or your company wants you to work overseas... How many of us really need practical English??? English is a school subject, by which students get to be screened. It is a very sad fact.
But recently many company require English and if u can speak English, people who cannot speak English will rely on you. This is a big advantage you can get.
And most of the product we see today is related to import and export. Even the smallest manufactures are thinking about import and export in the future to survive so I think its logical that many company prefers to hire people who can communicate in English.
It seems like English and science are relatively more important than other subjects in buisness. And it's easier to acquire English than getting university degree in science.
I think English teachers shouldn't be telling people how unecessary English is. People don't want to pay tax to English teachers who tells people how unimportant English can be.....
>>611 All right. I've got your point. I said, "Is it really necessary for all the highschoolers to learn English?" It is perfectly all right... or should I say, it is absolutely essential to learn English, if you want to do it and you can afford to do it.
There are some students who just hate to learn not only English but any other subjects. They have difficulties in adding numbers, writing some rudimental Chinese characters... Is it right to force them to learn a foreign language, which they are somehow sure they won't use in their lifetime?
I like our ALT. She is a good girl...but some things about her kind of irritate me. I wonder if it's because of our cultural differences... She is from a country where people leave their offices as soon as their jobs are done. She just doesn't understand whey we hang around until 5 o'clock even when we have nothing to do. According to her, it's silly to be at the office when there is nothing to do for the day. She just leave the office earlier than the time the working condition guarantees them without taking any hours off. I hate to say somethig this petty to her, but it still bothers me. Japanese teachers stay until 5 o'clock while ALTs do what they please to do. Isn't it unfair? At the same time I feel stupid to be annoyed by her behavior...because I'm not her employer. Shouldn't I be happy as long as she does her classes and all the responsibility she is given?
When Evidence Supporting Bilingual Education is Interpreted as Evidence for Dropping Bilingual Education: The Case of Bali (2001) S. Krashen (submitted for publication but may be cited, quoted and shared)
>>627 Writing English is not really one of my fortes. I remember getting 6 (out of 9)for my IELTS test before I went to an English speaking country to get a certificate in TESOL. Every time I handed in my essays, I asked one of my friends, speakers of English as native speakers, to check my English. Withour their help, I don't know if I would have got a pass... >>628 I, for one, don't have great skills or knowledge in English as you say. I like learning English, that's for sure. My students are not really very smart, but we try to have good time using English in the classes.
>>630 Actually I put my message very actively in that thread. I am the one who some people blame for keeping making excuses for English teachers not to have the 1st grade STEP qualification. I am the one who keeps saying pre-1st grade is good enough...
>>636 英語に訳すってことは別の言い方をすれば、ネイティブの人が読んでも 分かる文章にしろって意味なはず。 日本語を知らないアメリカ人がkomaなんで単語見てtopのこと、日本の伝統的な玩具だと 分かる人がどれだけいるかな? 俺が生徒ならThis is a top 場合によってはthe top と書くと思う。
>>705 phoneticsと勘違いしているわけではないですよね? phonicsは、松香洋子さんの言葉をかりると「英語の音声を通して、英語の読み、 書きの基礎を子供に教える、英語の基礎の基礎みたいなもの」です。 NHK教育テレビの「ライオンたちとイングリッシュ」(原題は Between the Lions) を試しに見てみてください。