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Demand for native EFL teachers increases
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marley'sghost



Joined: 04 Oct 2010
Posts: 255

PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 5:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="rxk22"]
marley'sghost wrote:


They managed to pack a lot into a lesson, and teach each grammar point only once, and use maybe 2-3 examples total. Then move on with no review of previous grammar and the such. Same thing in Elem.........

...........Basics and practice are sorely missing in Japan.
Plus I read about how the new standards are basically 1500 hours or so of study time. While they only get 600 hours or so now. So, a lot more kids falling dramatically behind, plus kids having to do more cram school.


"We have to cover the textbook material....". It puts a lot of pressure on the teachers.
Actually using the language takes time, and it always seems tests are next week.
That being said, I have a lot more freedom to do speeches and interviews and creative writing activities and things as a JHS ALT, than back in the day when I was working in high school.
Sometimes even the regular Japanese teachers do cool stuff.
I stuck my head in one of my JTE's classes the other day and the kids were doing dramas with props and everything!
I was like, "Hey! Waitaminit" I'm supposed to be the cool English teacher around here!"
I've got it worked out that every term (almost) every class will have some sort of a speaking activity that gets, well not really graded, but they get feedback on.
I often try and time my lessons to be review of something they just finished with their regular teacher. Say, they cover past tense on Monday. On Wednesday I'll do "My week" writing activity and interview relay or something so the kids can actually use (and can only pray learn) the material they "covered".
But yeah, every few years the textbooks have more words, more material. I do want to be optimistic, but I just don't know where they will find the hours.
In the Elementary guidelines, there is a comment that if a teacher finds it impossible to devote full class periods to English, it's fine to break the required hours into 10 minute segments.
"Hallo crass. How aa you?" "I'm sleepy." Owari. Check off 10 minutes.
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rxk22



Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629

PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 7:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

marley'sghost wrote:


"We have to cover the textbook material....". It puts a lot of pressure on the teachers.
Actually using the language takes time, and it always seems tests are next week.
That being said, I have a lot more freedom to do speeches and interviews and creative writing activities and things as a JHS ALT, than back in the day when I was working in high school.
Sometimes even the regular Japanese teachers do cool stuff.
I stuck my head in one of my JTE's classes the other day and the kids were doing dramas with props and everything!
I was like, "Hey! Waitaminit" I'm supposed to be the cool English teacher around here!"
I've got it worked out that every term (almost) every class will have some sort of a speaking activity that gets, well not really graded, but they get feedback on.
I often try and time my lessons to be review of something they just finished with their regular teacher. Say, they cover past tense on Monday. On Wednesday I'll do "My week" writing activity and interview relay or something so the kids can actually use (and can only pray learn) the material they "covered".
But yeah, every few years the textbooks have more words, more material. I do want to be optimistic, but I just don't know where they will find the hours.
In the Elementary guidelines, there is a comment that if a teacher finds it impossible to devote full class periods to English, it's fine to break the required hours into 10 minute segments.
"Hallo crass. How aa you?" "I'm sleepy." Owari. Check off 10 minutes.


problem is this just leads to a mentality of charging through the text and not even worrying about comprehension or any of that stuff. The teachers just talk at the kids, the kids just zone out, and even less learning is accomplished. If it were me, I'd move on after they were comfortable. I'd push the pace, but I would make it so that comprehension was possible, heck plausible.

Your situation seems unique, I sure haven't heard of that IRL. It's usually JTE drones on, and ALT does party games.
And yes, that is exactly how HR teachers teach ES classes. I think it's less than useless, they're just learning things wrong. "What this?" "It's pencil" I was like why are they even bothering!
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marley'sghost



Joined: 04 Oct 2010
Posts: 255

PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 5:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rxk22 wrote:
marley'sghost wrote:


"We have to cover the textbook material....". It puts a lot of pressure on the teachers.
Actually using the language takes time, and it always seems tests are next week.
That being said, I have a lot more freedom to do speeches and interviews and creative writing activities and things as a JHS ALT, than back in the day when I was working in high school.
Sometimes even the regular Japanese teachers do cool stuff.
I stuck my head in one of my JTE's classes the other day and the kids were doing dramas with props and everything!
I was like, "Hey! Waitaminit" I'm supposed to be the cool English teacher around here!"
I've got it worked out that every term (almost) every class will have some sort of a speaking activity that gets, well not really graded, but they get feedback on.
I often try and time my lessons to be review of something they just finished with their regular teacher. Say, they cover past tense on Monday. On Wednesday I'll do "My week" writing activity and interview relay or something so the kids can actually use (and can only pray learn) the material they "covered".
But yeah, every few years the textbooks have more words, more material. I do want to be optimistic, but I just don't know where they will find the hours.
In the Elementary guidelines, there is a comment that if a teacher finds it impossible to devote full class periods to English, it's fine to break the required hours into 10 minute segments.
"Hallo crass. How aa you?" "I'm sleepy." Owari. Check off 10 minutes.


problem is this just leads to a mentality of charging through the text and not even worrying about comprehension or any of that stuff. The teachers just talk at the kids, the kids just zone out, and even less learning is accomplished. If it were me, I'd move on after they were comfortable. I'd push the pace, but I would make it so that comprehension was possible, heck plausible.

Your situation seems unique, I sure haven't heard of that IRL. It's usually JTE drones on, and ALT does party games.
And yes, that is exactly how HR teachers teach ES classes. I think it's less than useless, they're just learning things wrong. "What this?" "It's pencil" I was like why are they even bothering!


I hope you don't mean it sounds like I drone on and on....though from that long, long post I put up I can see how you might get that idea.
I think the good teachers do manage to do what you describe, push the pace and check for comprehension. The ones that really "charge through" are the ones with poor classroom/time management skills. They burn up 10-15 minutes of class time every period scurrying around collecting notebooks, the kids get out of control in that time and that makes it even harder. And you'll find those people teaching any subject.
And don't sweat the ES teachers's poor English. I just ate lunch with my 3rd year class and had one of the kids explain their math homework to me. Just imagining if suddenly we ALTs had to teach math for some sort of newfangled , multi-disciplinary course of study requirement the government was saying we had to do.
Of course it's best to model the language correctly, but hey, communication is not perfect. A dropped article is not the end of the world. It's also important for the students to see real people using the language. Otherwise it's just the kids and the denki-kokuban and silent, dead classes of passive note-takers, too afraid of "not getting it right" to raise their hand.
And yes, my situation if fairly unique. I've been at my schools a long time. Longer than any of the regular English teachers. So, I have a pretty wide latitude as far as lessons go and they pretty much let me do things my way.
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rxk22



Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629

PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 6:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

marley'sghost wrote:


I hope you don't mean it sounds like I drone on and on....though from that long, long post I put up I can see how you might get that idea.
I think the good teachers do manage to do what you describe, push the pace and check for comprehension. The ones that really "charge through" are the ones with poor classroom/time management skills. They burn up 10-15 minutes of class time every period scurrying around collecting notebooks, the kids get out of control in that time and that makes it even harder. And you'll find those people teaching any subject.
And don't sweat the ES teachers's poor English. I just ate lunch with my 3rd year class and had one of the kids explain their math homework to me. Just imagining if suddenly we ALTs had to teach math for some sort of newfangled , multi-disciplinary course of study requirement the government was saying we had to do.
Of course it's best to model the language correctly, but hey, communication is not perfect. A dropped article is not the end of the world. It's also important for the students to see real people using the language. Otherwise it's just the kids and the denki-kokuban and silent, dead classes of passive note-takers, too afraid of "not getting it right" to raise their hand.
And yes, my situation if fairly unique. I've been at my schools a long time. Longer than any of the regular English teachers. So, I have a pretty wide latitude as far as lessons go and they pretty much let me do things my way.


Oh no, I didn't mean that you drone on. JTEs tend to.
That said, I have never had a class where the JTE didn't just waste time on pointless stuff. Like notebook checks. Walking around making sure the kids wrote the topic in the notebooks is a massive waste of time. The kids also just are copying it down with no comprehension. And as you said, it's hard to transition out of that for the kids too.

I saw what the Es teachers did. They didn't use me, and instead for the most part taught the class and spoke to the kids. I think dropping articles or making mistakes, especially at the basic level is very damaging. Why bother learning basics, when you're learning them wrong, making it harder to relearn, and stay motivated?
Having an ALT use the language in front of the kids isn't natural either. It's not how we would speak, and it's also well beyond their comprehension level. Everything should be i plus one. Not this, just listen to English speakers and you'll magically learn. Japan continues to double down on their terrible way of teaching.
Even given a lot of latitude, there's so much to get in the way, it's hard to make any progress
Which is good for me. I get more students that way Cool
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