Job Discussion Forums

[selu26]

[HLJHLJ]

No, I worked at GABA, and also at a university. However, I had several friends who worked with AEON, so I am pretty familiar with the company.

If you can only take classes a couple of times a week you may have to get a private tutor rather than trying to take a regular class. But if you make the time to study in the week as well, you will still make good progress. Also, most city halls offer free Japanese classes to local residents, but it will be pot luck as to whether they fall on your day off or not, but it's definitely worth checking out. (IME they weren't great quality, but as they were basically free, it was still a good deal).

For your lesson plan, my advice is probably too late, but if you have any choice at all, don't do directions. It's hard to make your first class on directions interesting and engaging because their is so much vocab to learn. IMHO it's second only to telling the time in one to be avoided for a demo lesson.

If they have told you it has to be directions, there's not much you can do. But if you have a choice, choose something with a smaller vocab list so they can get on to an activity as soon as possible. (If you do have to go with directions then forward/backward wouldn't be considered common vocab, it would be more likely to be 'go straight ahead/on' and 'go back' and then you are starting to mess with phrasal verbs which makes it even more complicated).

[selu26]

[HLJHLJ]

Colours is easy vocab, but it's not very interesting. Do they give you any guidance at all? Age? Level? Or are you entirely free to choose?

[selu26]

They do give some guidance. What they want (copy-pasted from the e-mail they sent me):

[HLJHLJ]

They would already know the basic colours and by the time you've explained the game to them your 5 minutes will be nearly up. Personally, I would go for a simple practical activity with an obvious communicative purpose. (Where does your colour game fit into a conversation lesson?). They say beginners, so lets say A2 CEF. If that means nothing to you, look at this for a summary. https://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/ts/exams/CEFR/A2

In your lesson plan you would be expected to state the level of your students anyway.

I'd pick something very obvious and standard from the can do statements for that level, like ordering from a restaurant with picture prompts, buying a ticket (with prompts), booking a hotel room. The communicative activity is obvious, they role play ordering/booking taking it in turns. You can show you've prepared by bringing picture and prompt cards. Aiming to finish with them role playing without prompt cards.

For example, order at a cafe. Start the lesson with a quick review of food/drink vocab, (elicit vocab from them, A2 they should already know some). Have cards with the usual stuff, coffee, tea, water, a chicken sandwich, a cheese sandwich, a salad, a cookie, a slice of cake, plus a few blanks so Ss can write one of their own each. Have a picture on one side and the picture and word on the other. Introduce the vocab, I would like, Can I have, I'll have a and the waiter's reply 'certainly', 'I'll get that for you' 'Would you like <a drink/some food> with that?' Have them practice a few short scripted role plays, taking it in turns to be waiter and customer. Then repeat with a reduced/gap fill role play, then act it out without the prompts using just the picture cards. Customer orders, waiter gives them the correct picture card.

For your 5 min demo, demo the role play with a student first, then have them practice in pairs, you monitor, correct and support. Minimal talk time for you, max for them, clear lesson aim.

It won't win any awards for originality but it's a solid simple demo with opportunity for you to be enthusiastic and engaging.

[selu26]

First off I'd like to say I really appreciate your help. I have been having a bit of trouble pinning down where exactly to aim my lesson, and your advice is starting to give me some cohesion.

[HLJHLJ]

The plan was for a full lesson, you would just take a tiny 5 min chunk of it and demo that. You would need to be careful with the poster board, because asking questions about menu items is a B1 activity, so you'd have to pitch it very carefully to get the level right.

Rather than starting with a prop and trying to think of an activity, search the net for an appropriate activity that you could demo in 5 mins, and then plan a lesson around that. But you really need to spend a bit of time reading about language levels first so that you are clear about what an A1/A2 learner should be learning.

[selu26]

I see what you're saying, though I might have come up with an interesting idea that does involve the posterboard.

Say I have a bunch of sticky notes up on the board with pictures of food or items at a store. I would introduce the vocab of the cards (apple, egg, celery, etc. etc.), and then have 2 students come up. One would be the customer, and the other the clerk. The customer would say "I'd like a/an X", and the clerk would say "Certainly" and take the sticky note from the board and give it to the customer. Then another pair would go, etc. etc.

I feel like this could be completed within the 5 minute timeline, has a fairly clear objective (teaching about food items/how to ask for things at a store), and involves very little time for me to speak. I could even stick the sticky notes on a wall if I had to, and just skip the posterboard entirely.

[HLJHLJ]

The basic idea is fine, but I can see a couple of problems with it. First, it's quite hard to make nice looking props with sticky notes, or do you have a way of printing directly on to them? Otherwise are you going to cut pictures out and stick them on to the sticky notes? Will the notes still be sticky enough after all the peeling and resticking while you make the cards?

Second, most of the time just 2 students are talking while the rest of the class watches. That's only marginally better than having the class watch while you talk. Can you get them working in pairs to maximise their talk time?

Also, stick to one objective. If you are teaching how to ask for things in a store, then only review food vocab they already know, don't try to cover new food vocab and 'asking' in one 30 min lesson. Keep it simple.

[selu26]

[HLJHLJ]

I'm not sure what you mean about wanting it to look structured.

The reason it's bad for you to do all the talking is that while you are talking the students aren't. Swapping that for having 2 students talking while the rest of the class does nothing barely increases their talk time at all. You need to find a way of maximising all of the students' talk time.

Also, if they were real students it would put them in a very uncomfortable situation. You are asking them to 'perform' in front of the whole class using language they haven't fully learnt yet. Just getting Japanese students to speak in class can be challenging sometimes, let alone making them stand at the front and do it.

If you have created a good pair activity then it can be adapted to any group size. If you only have one pair that's fine, if you have an uneven number have a group of 3. In your example, you would just have 2 customers and 1 store owner, they would rotate characters anyway. While the students are working you would be listening, monitoring and (very gently) correcting if needed.

EDIT: if you look at the links I gave you earlier you can see what is expected of an A1/A2 student. Search for CEF 'can do' statements and vocab lists for those levels to get a feel for what they should know.

[selu26]

I'm having a bit of a hard time explaining this. I understand your point about students not wanting to be called out, and how my activity doesn't really increase their talking time much, and I agree.

My greatest concern I guess is that I feel like, during group work, it would be difficult for me to showcase my demeanor. But, given your suggestion to monitor the students, I could also be dispensing praise/corrections as needed, so that would allow me some time to show the reps my attitude. The initial demo where I would be either the store owner or the customer could help alleviate this as well.

I guess I'm getting too caught up in the idea that the focus needs to be on me in front of the "class" for the majority of the time. Group work pulls the attention away from me and onto the students, and I feel like that would make it hard for the reps to gauge whatever they want to gauge. Though maybe that's the point.

[rslrunner]

MOD EDIT

[nightsintodreams]

If you want to learn Japanese, get out of Aeon as soon as possible. You will be surrounded by English all day at work, then on the weekends you'll be hanging out with other Aeon teachers who speak English.

You will NOT make Japanese friends who don't want to pactice their English unless you are already a competant Japanese speaker. A girlfriend/boyfriend on the other hand, is always a possibility if you meet the right person.

It's not impossible to learn Japanese while working at an Eikaiwa, but it will reduce your chances and slow down your progress.

Good luck with your interview.