Job Discussion Forums

[wonmi]

Hi all!
New to this forum. I did JET years ago and am currently in the States teaching TEFL. I have to lead a workshop titled "How to work with an ALT" to a group of Japanese teachers who are here for TEFL training.

Naturally LOTS to say, but I'd love your input if you've done ANY ALT (especially if you've gone through a private agency) work before or have extensive knowledge about private ALT agencies in Japan. Here are some questions I have:
1) If you're a private ALT (or have been one), how many schools do you usually visit in a month. Is the schedule decided by the agency or by the school?
2) Going into a school, do you have a general idea of which grade you will teach and which teacher you will teach with? Or is it more like arrive, get a schedule, and find the class...?
3) In class, what do you usually do? Does the teacher actually ask you to help teach? Or do you do your usual human tape recorder? OR are you expected to go in with a full lesson and the teacher sits back and watch?
4) I've heard from some people that private ALTs are paid by the hour and it's in their contract that they teach only during class and aren't expected to plan before or reflect after the class with the teacher. Is this true?
5) What are the better agencies to work for? What are the agencies to avoid? What's the average pay in yen per month?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

[esl_prof]

Excellent questions!!! In addition to content, I'd encourage you to think about your method of workshop delivery.

A good starting point would be Jane Vella's Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach.
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Listen-Teach-Dialogue-Educating/dp/0787959677

[marley'sghost]

[fluffyhamster]

The dispatch positions I've had have always involved going to at least 3 junior high schools (or one base JHS and several elementary schools, or even exclusively to elementaries). The BOE draws up a schedule that divides the AET's number of visits reasonably regularly and evenly between the schools on his or her roster, and then leaves it to the schools to liaise with the dispatch agency concerning any changes, make-up days etc. No details of actual lessons were ever exchanged IME between the JHS and dispatch agency - such details were left to be worked out between the AET and JTEs concerned from day to day and week to week. (It was only on JET that JTEs did me the courtesy of faxing [to the BOE] or calling to tell me what [what little LOL] they were intending to do, and then, that was usually only a necessity from the less regular/more "one-shot" type of schools, that I'd not visited in potentially months! BTW my JET schools were all SHSs, with only exceedingly rare visits to JHSs, or to special e.g. handicapped, or blind and/or deaf schools).

So much for the general schedule - now for the actual teaching, that whole "HOW to work with an AET" shebang LOL. The keyword is obviously WITH, but the vast majority of JTEs seem to prefer to work AROUND (avoid) the AET or delegating much to them, and handing over the ENTIRE lesson isn't the answer either (that's just turning the usual situation on its head, leaving now the JTE with little to do!). But all this is just so much handwaving regarding methodology, "minutes to fill". But fill with what precisely? Obviously English language items - linguistic knowledge, in other words.

And now we come to what I think is the crux of the matter. Incredibly, only a minority of the JTEs I've worked with have ever expressed much interest in the language. That is, very few have ever asked "How does this textbook dialogue strike you?" or "Is this or that authentic enough an example?". Some have even posed RHETORICAL questions to not so much find out any facts of usage but to "tell" me that I (a native speaker) am wrong/cannot possibly be correct ("corrected" though, sure! ), whereas they (or whatever dubious usages they are championing) are "in fact" right. Very puzzling, passive-aggressive, somewhat rude and disappointing attitude to have!

It's not that the average AET wants to bin the textbook or even explicitly contest a single example in it, let alone wreck or scrap the exams. All they want to do is ensure that at least a smidgen of authentic usage, example contexts and possible practice be given just a teeny weeny bit of time, towards the end of the class say, and some linguistic curiosity on the JTE's part (assume the AET has some, please!) would obviously go a long way towards helping hammer stuff like this out. Where's the terrible conflict in that? And if JTEs can make that concession, they might even start to realize that native input from the start of the lesson might not be such a threatening or awful thing either.

In other words, the native is there to help contextualize and indeed to personify the language. The JTE doesn't need to be involved in that (if they don't wish to), and can stick to providing mainly Japanese (explanations, translations etc). But then, this is exactly where clearer agreement on what needs to be said comes in! Any AET with an ounce of training won't want to be just jabbering away about anything (with all the concomitant demands that might make on the translator!), but will be gearing their language towards focussing on contextualizing whatever key items have been decided upon (which hopefully aren't "just, and only just, what's in the textbook please").

Hope that (my 2nd-5th paragraphs above) has helped answer your 3rd and 4th questions, Wonmi!

Quick rundown of dispatch agencies that I've worked for or have at least had dealings with (from roughly "best" to worst):

Interac: Reasonable IME (but that E is the most dated of all these dispatchers)
RCS: Marred "only" by financial irregularities/suddenly withdrawing availability of lending and helping themselves to too-large repayments
DIC International: Dozy wazzocks who drop you right in it
Wing: Litany of irritations~problems, and too-patronizing attitude
W5: Disorganized, condescending timewasters! (Never worked for 'em)
Borderlink: Psychotic bloodsucking hypocritical hellfiends

"Bonus": Interesting recent thread:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=109728

[wonmi]

Thanks Marley's Ghost and Fluffyhamster for your prompt reply. These are exactly the kinds of comments I want to see. Especially Fluffyhamster, I wanted to know what kind of things the JTE does or doesn't do in the classroom. The textbooks (which I've looked through dozens of them both in JHS and HS) are definitely very limited and poorly organized. I've been working very closely with these Japanese teachers for the past 5 weeks and certainly Grammar-Translation and Audiolingual methods were highly regarded. Now having gone halfway through our program, they are understanding (or maybe some of them might feel that we're forcing them) the importance of communicative and collaborative learning.

A part of my workshop will be on what the ALT can actually do in the classroom other than just being the usual human tape recorder. What advice would you give to that? I already know things like role playing with the teacher, telling stories to the students, planning games, providing sample sentences. Are there any other tasks you do or wish you could do in the classroom? As for those of you who teach your own class, do you wish to team-teach with the JTE or are you satisfied with doing it on your own?

Another part of my workshop (which will probably play a big part) is HOW to communicate with the ALT. As Fluffyhamster already said, Japanese people are passive and their communication method is less than stellar. Are there things you wish you could tell the JTEs about how they can communicate better (that you wouldn't directly say to your coworkers' faces =P)? I can pass on the message in a very nice polite way to my teachers. haha...

Again, thank you SO MUCH. GREATLY appreciated.

[fluffyhamster]

"Off the top of my head":

JTEs (and AETs!) should be familiar with notions such as 'function', or at least with possible paraphrases ('ways of e.g. asking, telling, checking, advising/giving advice, suggesting/making suggestions, and so on'). The main problem however is that JTEs need to actually DELEGATE. I would invite them to look at textbooks identical or similar to the ones used in schools here and identify weaknesses and thus possible instructions that they might give to an AET. For example, "This unit is OK as far as it goes, but it only concerns suggestions for what to buy somebody for a birthday present, and doesn't even consider 'get' as an alternative to 'buy'. So Fluffyhamster-sensei/FH-AET, please think of several general situations that will each involve a variety of suggestions, and please consider if the textbooks range of exponents [ways] for making suggestions is enough also". (AET promptly goes off and thinks up e.g. What to do in Sapporo this weekend, or at the other extreme What to do if the plane crashes on the way to Kyoto and the students have to survive for days in the mountains. In addition to the two textbook stalwarts 'Let's...' and 'Why don't we...', the AET comes up with modals such as 'We could...', and the phrase 'How about ...ing'. Coming up with alternative phrases for further activities is certainly one way of avoiding explicitly contradicting what's in the textbook). At the very least, it shouldn't be hard to delegate regarding grammar points or certainly lexis.

The main advantage of AETs though is that they can (or should be more able than the JTE) to authentically contextualize key points and indeed the language generally. Anyone who has team-taught with certainly weaker JTEs will know only too well how forced the small-talk (phatic pleasantries) can be at the start of classes ("Please greet every student with the innumerable variations you must know for 'Good Morning', but don't talk about anything other than that as we have to teach them about Simple Past tense, including 'Did you...?' questions"), and how much Japanese preamble can start creeping into justifying whatever lurch finally into "English". It is a wonder then why more JTEs don't allow their AETs to even get off the ground let alone take conversational flight. Try to make the language points part and parcel of the process and patter that bit more (rather than leaving that to Japanese, and what's more UNPLANNED Japanese, all the time!).

Perhaps the simplest way of getting the point I'm trying to make across would be, can the essential linguistic points of the textbook's lesson be spun into conversational form i.e. a conversation of sorts between the AET and the JTE at least? And there you have it, a way to possibly start the lesson and divide up the talking work and turns between at least the two main participants. The teachers personify the text, the text can then provide a readable variation on that theme, and the further activities provide students with a bit more leeway and fun to run further variations, and so on and so forth. (I've never liked the way that the text is considered sacred and no variations permitted). Hmm could get a bit too 漫才 manzai-y tho eh! Another way then would be to have the AET speak the way they would like to, and the JTE play the part of the students/class (i.e. cut the overt JTE out in the preliminary idea sounding and conversational shaping) - only then can one get a clearer idea of where not only the genuine difficulties but also the genuine "interest", path, way (michi, dou 道 LOL) lies. Hard to know what might be said if nobody is ever welcome to see~say what might be said! Still, script-writing~rehearsal time could be limited, so again, DELEGATION and TRUST might be the best answer. I appreciate that not all AETs however will be up for doing much of the talking either, so... (a game of Dumb Man's Guff could then ensue LOL).

Ultimately however it is sometimes (well, often, speaking from my elementary school experience of teaching without any JTE hovering) nice to be able to speak "unhindered". If JTEs are honest they'll admit that when they speak to their students at least, it is rarely to GENUINELY communicate. It's hard to explain, but as a native speaker, and even when I have a good idea of the forthcoming replies, I NEVER just "go through the motions" when asking students questions or telling them "whatever" (unless of course I've been forced to by an ultimately impatient JTE). But that is probably the greatest challenge that a non-native teacher faces - to speak without apparent artifice. Perhaps this is an impossible ask, as the students KNOW who the "real" speaker is of the language under such "scrutiny". (Actually, that is a good word. Natives don't SCRUTINIZE - ~ form - or whip-crack too much unless it is for good functional reason e.g. to understand exactly what the speaker means or is trying to say, or to play gently with a word, and so on. Less grind, more fun!).

Or maybe we could just channel Searle and conduct a "Japanese classroom" thought experiment. Invite the JTE to imagine that they have been hired for their native Japanese ability to TJFL. But practically the moment they arrive at their new school, they are bunged into a cramped room stuffed full of mainly silent mannequins, and told that the only way they can interact and "communicate" is via slips of paper with example sentences from some rule-mongering fusty dusty joyless textbook. Occasional malnourishing bowls of gruel get pushed under the door in accordance with how well they adhere to the model and strict instructions. Sounds like an ideal situation and dream job, doesn't it?!

BTW, regarding linguistic/language awareness, it might not be a bad idea to give the JTEs plain dodgy exemplars (see for example the selection I mentioned on the first page or so of the thread I've linked to above), and get them pondering why any self-respecting AET would "veto" the examples in at least their mind if not in the actual (recalcitrant/intransigent JTE-led) classroom practice. This is sort of like reverse-engineering, coming up with decent examples~activities from bad examples!

[RM1983]

1) I go to 2 Junior High schools mainly, at about a 60/40 % split. I don't know who decides the schedule.

2) I get plans the month before, meaning I know what grade and class I will be teaching and who I am eating lunch with. These are not totally reliable and they get re-jigged quite a bit. I'm usually the last to know about this and sometimes wont be told at all lol

3) It tends to be a mixture. At both schools I do most of the 1st grade lessons solo.

One of my 2nd grade teachers actually seems pretty savvy on how to teach and uses a lot of activities that you might expect the ALT to do. I thought he hated me at first but I had to figure out how to get involved in the lessons - which is pretty much running around talking to and helping the students with whatever is going on.

The other second grade teacher I also thought hated me but as time has gone by it just seems she is incredibly insecure. She has had some complaints from parents and her back seems well up. Too controlling. She seems to want to do more communicative stuff and asks me for help but then will shut my ideas down "too hard" "they wont understand" "I don't want them to get out of their seat because they might get naughty" type of thing. She has kind of been slyly training me, I think, to do the lessons as she wants.

The third grade teachers have me do maybe a class a month, to be honest I think they are both feeling the pressure of exam time. One of them is a nice person and seems to like me talking about things like why we say 'God bless you' after someone sneezes and that kind of contextual stuff. The other I think is a bit of a sadist, she insists I make everything quite difficult and I think this is good for raising awareness of English away from the textbook.

4) I get a lot of time to plan the classes!


General

- I think that some of my JTEs don't understand what the purpose of an ALT immersive class is. It collides too strongly with the exam-based syllabus they have to teach and they still seem to think it is just about native pronunciation, which is a very dated view I think. I have taught elementary school before and at this age the students seem to be able to handle a class without any JTE translation no problem.

Something comes along around Junior High level that installs the belief that the students are incapable of doing an immersive class. They can. An important point here is as the students get older they seem to get less and less interaction with the ALT when it should be more and more. Id say just remember that they CAN do an immersive class, but they need to maintain it. If they have had 2 months of either nothing at all or just grammar translation, they wont instantly be able to smoothly transition back to a class all in English. So it is kind of like resetting that in a sense.

- I actually have found that I can be very effective as an Assistant in the class as long as it isn't solely grammar translation or the JTE talking in Japanese. This might sound like me being slow on the uptake, but it took a little while to figure out how to best get involved in these classes. For example, one of my third year teachers had me in for a round of lessons and just had me reading aloud. I had heard the Human Tape Recorder meme and thought that was my role. I refuse to just stand at the side now though. If it is just him talking I'll go and sit at an empty desk, and take part as if I was a student, then help out with whatever activities come along. This 'Human Tape Recorder' meme is everywhere in Japan TEFL, and I have spoken to several people first hand who believe that is their role.

I dont wanna paint all ALTs out to be as dumb as me, but rarely has a JTE discussed with me what kind of support they would like me to give when I am not the main teacher. I suspect they don't know themselves. Perhaps make some notes about what the ALT might do to help your class (go table-to-table correcting their writing etc), and brief us before the class. I LOVE assisting like this actually - I prefer it to a full-on immersive class as I can really focus on helping, can get to know the students better, and can also get into a bit of reactive teaching (which I believe is quite a bit more helpful than a single lesson point).

- there is nothing stopping the JTEs from doing immersive classes themselves. BUT they might want to think about HOW to do it more carefully. I've noticed that when I go to a class the Japanese teacher might for example start giving instructions in English that they clearly haven't tried or even heard before. They sound weird and often dont even mean what they intend. Why not study how to give instructions and check they are ok with the ALT beforehand?

- Last thing,and maybe a personal one. I can't really stand sitting in the teacher's room all day doing nothing. It makes me hate the job. I find it hard to focus on studying Japanese or whatever for too long and I'd rather be in the class. I've thought about asking to be moved out of one school before because of too much free time. That free time there, you might think that we like it but for me at least, it just draaaaaaags on and on and I'm fighting to stay awake. Also, why do I always get the broken chair?

[Maitoshi]

The broken chair keeps you on your toes, as it were?

[rxk22]

Wow, very nice topic. Brings back memories. I was an ALT some years ago. I never got any lesson plans for JHS. I did get a brief outline for Elem, but it was pretty basic.

I would have loved for my JTEs to have some interest in developing their language skills. Some had some pretty good English, while others were awful. I found that JTE's instructions were almost always far too vague. "Make a WS that has topics from today's chapter in it", which of course was never good enough for them.

[RM1983]

[Inflames]

I worked as an ALT for a few years, so I've included my answers.
1) If you're a private ALT (or have been one), how many schools do you usually visit in a month. Is the schedule decided by the agency or by the school?
Outside of Interac, I was hired as a part-timer and my schedule specified the school (it was only one school).

2) Going into a school, do you have a general idea of which grade you will teach and which teacher you will teach with? Or is it more like arrive, get a schedule, and find the class...?
One contract I had specified the exact grade, and had times allocated to each class in that grade (and these never changed). For another contract, the year was broken up into 3 terms, and in each term I only taught one year (this was in JHS).

3) In class, what do you usually do? Does the teacher actually ask you to help teach? Or do you do your usual human tape recorder? OR are you expected to go in with a full lesson and the teacher sits back and watch?
It depends on the teacher - in JHS I was expected to support the JT, but in ES I was running the show (although I the BoE had hired a local juku teacher as another assistant - there were 3 of us in the class). Most teachers participated a bit, but in one class (that I remember) the JT tried to sit in the back (I wouldn't let her). I noticed a correlation between how much the teacher participated and how the students behaved (more active teachers had better students).

4) I've heard from some people that private ALTs are paid by the hour and it's in their contract that they teach only during class and aren't expected to plan before or reflect after the class with the teacher. Is this true?
This depends on the BoE. With one BoE, I was paid per lesson, plus some time before and after class. With another one, I was paid per day and had to be there the entire time (although sometimes the school let me go home early). Fundamentally, you're not expected to plan with the teacher, but the JTs would e-mail me a day or two before the lesson to let me know which lesson we would be doing.

5) What are the better agencies to work for? What are the agencies to avoid? What's the average pay in yen per month?
I worked for Interac and Minerva. Interac, while paying people a monthly salary, isn't great (Osaka Interac is actually terrible). Minerva was fine - they were honest with me and let me be.

There are some extras I'd like to add as well.

One is that the teachers at a school need to sit down and decide policies for the classroom (such as speaking Japanese) and agree on them and put them in writing. These policies then need to be communicated to the ALT. Often times these things aren't communicated well at all, and different teachers can have different policies.

Also, teachers need to tell the ALT about lessons beforehand (at least a day before), and not at the last minute. Requests for special lessons need even more time. One of the JHS books talked about Peter Rabbit, and the JT wanted me to talk about Peter Rabbit for 10 minutes or so - well, I'm an American and I've heard of Peter Rabbit, but I actually read the textbook for info about the story!

[fluffyhamster]

[marley'sghost]

Good points here. I'll toss in my ￥２。

[steki47]

[fluffyhamster]