Job Discussion Forums

[ssjup81]

Hi there. As I mentioned in one of the other threads, I was offered a position at an eikaiwa and took it. I found out that they use a book series called Let's Go! Has anyone ever used this text or know if it's a decent one? The only English text I've worked with (when working for Heart) was New Horizon.

[fluffyhamster]

It was available for use in an eikaiwa I once worked at, but the young learners there were generally so obnoxious and badly behaved (often due to very wide age ranges within each class) that getting them to do anything, let alone crack open a textbook, was quite a tall order. Plus IIRC the teacher guides were either in short supply or missing/non-existent, making it hard to know quite how to use the books, which seemed to have almost zero text in them, being composed mainly of water-coloury pastel-hued illustrations of kids poring over pencil case contents or going off into fields to fly kites or sniff glue or whatever. Generally I thought they looked quite arid, boring, useless almost, but a poster called Sally Olsen over on the Teacher Discussion forums seems to have sworn by them, so she perhaps she knows something that I missed.

[Christian St.Bacon]

Actually thought it was quite a good book for young learners - the different levels all come with their own boxes of small picture cards - plenty of presentation and drilling work can be done with them and more importantly, a whole load of fun production activities.....with the kids especially lively fun and interactive games, depending on your delivery - an ok book/plenty to work on and supplement...

Shukran 'ganbarimasu' very much......


Isn't New Horizon for teenagers and Let's Go, I'm sure is really only for Young Learners

[ssjup81]

I'm going to assume that New Horizon is for the older children. I worked in a JHS before returning home last year, and that's what they used.

Thanks for the advice guys on the book. I hope that I'll be able to use it effectively.

[Inflames]

In Japan it's often much easier to assume that the textbook is going to be terrible and won't match the students' levels at all.

It might be a bit harsh but I've found it to be true for around 70% of the textbooks I've used.

[move]

It's a good book. If it's from Oxford or Cambridge you know it's going to be decent.

[Pitarou]

[fluffyhamster]

I wish that eikaiwa's library had had the teacher guides and card sets then (assuming they weren't hidden away somewhere), as I might've learnt something. As it was the books alone seemed quite useless. (My suspicion is however still that even the full MAT method probably isn't as interesting or fun as what the average teacher can come up with themselves, given enough time and effort. I really didn't bother much at that eikaiwa though, because as I say the kids were so spoilt and ghastly!).

[Pitarou]