Job Discussion Forums

[wonmi]

Hi all,

I will be conducting a workshop for elementary school teachers from Japan about how to work better with ALTs. I know the experience for JHS and HS ALTs is very different.
1) Elementary teachers' English levels are even lower
2) The learning is more focused on the word level and just playing games like fruits basket or karuta.
3) Many ALTs end up planning the entire lesson and the elementary teacher just watches or assists.

Can you share some advice that you would love me to share with elementary school teachers? What are great things they do? What are things that you wish they could improve? What would you wish for teachers to teach at the elem level keeping in mind that official English instruction doesn't really start until JHS. Any advice or comments would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

[kzjohn]

Maybe also ask here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/teachinginJapan

[fluffyhamster]

Hello again Wonmi, can I ask where you're based? If it's not in Japan, it seems strange that you're being asked to conduct workshops and apparently in the absence of enough (much if any?) firsthand experience. But hey, this is the weird and wonderful world of ELT, so... LOL.

Technically I would say that the concept of ALT ceases to be accurate or appropriate in ESs, given that there are no JTEs as such to take up whatever slack. The problem then becomes in who or where the linguistic authority lies, and given a lackadaisical or useless (A)LT (you know, the type who really prefer teaching or rather assisting in JHSs) it is all too easy for schools to fall back on suggesting if not pushing rubbish like Genki English for the supposed lack of anything better.

My first suggestion then would be that whenever possible, the ES teacher given the duty of liaising with or orienting the (A)LT intimate that the sky is the limit and that there is a lot more freedom to get creative in ESs compared to JHSs. Of course, the likelihood is that even then, many (A)LTs will just go and print off stuff like Genki anyway, but they should at least be offered a free hand and not like I say be pressed into using anything offhand or simply because the previous ALT or BOE somebody used or suggested it. It would also be useful at this stage to remind the (A)LT that even though they will be the main teacher, they should make an effort to give the homeroom teachers, HRTs, some sort of role in the lessons (though this will obviously depend on the personality of the individual HRTs...but if the lessons are interesting and lively enough, then even the most standoffish will take a bit of interest).

Part of the reason that schools may be reluctant to go with new stuff could be to do with a need to submit any new lesson plan records to the BOE, but if the (A)LT is experienced enough or can at least find their way around a bilingual dictionary (and who can't?) and with the help of standardized forms etc, there is no reason concise new records cannot be kept and new approaches thus developed. Implicit in this is that ESs should if possible be hiring relatively experienced and reasonably fluent (in J) English teachers (let's call 'em ETs, extra terrestrials LOL) rather than reluctant newbies drafted in from JHS work and with an eye on the exit time clock.

That is not to say that the ET should be given too much of a free hand, though. For example, any Japanese used by them should be in moderation and for the explicit purpose of setting up the practice of the target English phrases. Likewise, there should be some linguistic point to the lessons and not simply an endless series of the self-introduction-like lessons one sees all too often in JHSs (which is where the aimlessness can set in). Equally, don't get hissy if the ET is ambitious and e.g. teaches a little about the English alphabet ( http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=56764 ) in grades 5 or 6 just because you feel it is knocking out a few hours of your homeroom lessons next year or something.

The main point I want to make however is that lessons really needn't be 'more focused on the word level and just playing games like fruits basket or karuta', in fact, I'd say that is almost a recipe for boredom and frustration in certainly the longer term, and for not just the students but as importantly the (native-speaker) teacher too. And words aren't just content words but also include function words, in fact (as is hopefully quite well-known actually), some of the commonest words in English are function words: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English . Imagine if we honestly expected Japanese to function without any of the possible nuances conveyed by items like wa and ga. I found that ideas started to flow and build once I started thinking a little more ambitiously than the likes of Genki would have had me:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=646217#646217

So, in summary:

-delegate responsibility to the ET, by casting it as an opportunity to be creative

-don't abrogate either of your responsibilities by suggesting or falling back too soon on the likes of Genki English or a previous ET's lesson plans

-favour ambitiousness over playing it too safe, but of course don't let the ET overestimate the abilities of the students (if in doubt, ask the ET to quickly run through the actual lesson patter with you beforehand. If you can follow it, chances are the students will be able to, at least with a little help if necessary from the HRT to model the dialogues or whatever with the ET)

-allow translation or J preamble in moderation (Direct Methods are rarely that direct, and confuse mere explanation and other "assorted" classroomese with actual usage)

-insist that the ET keep at least informal notes of which classes have been taught which lessons, and/or together make an archive of at least the materials used

One last thing: if the ET is expected to eat lunch with the students, please calculate the necessary number of dinners to be served BEFORE they are served, as collecting food back in from dozens of plates and redividing the number of servings is a recipe for possible food poisoning ROFL!

[wonmi]

Hi Fluffyhamster! Thanks again for your extensive response!

I'm based in California. My school has been training JTEs in JHS and HS in communicative teaching and the workshop that I had asked for tips for on this forum has been really successful thanks to a lot of great feedback from here. This summer, we got a new contract to train elementary school teachers. I do have firsthand experience in an elementary school, but as we always say, everyone's experience is different and I always want to paint a more comprehensive picture to them instead of just highlighting my own experience. In any case, thank you!

After reviewing surveys that the elementary school teachers gave to me, some of them shared their frustration in having a lack of time to plan with the ALT. Even when they do, the language barrier often causes confusion and the plan that the EST had in mind was not what ended up being executed. Yes, the EST doesn't have much experience teaching English at all let alone being able to speak well. However, our program has been trying to help them design simple communicative lessons that include a main language point. We've been having them brainstorm relative content words to teach for vocabulary. We're also teaching them the concepts of controlled activities leading to meaningful. On top of that, they are practicing how to teach activities using simple English and making the videos and such to share with other teachers. If they are able to do most of this, the ALT has a much easier and focused role: TO JUST ASSIST.

I'll definitely be adding your comments into the PPT. Thanks again.

[fluffyhamster]

Oh OK, thanks for filling in a few things (it may help people respond better). And I know what you mean about highlighting more than just one's own experience - I look at what I've written above and know it ultimately ain't much, in that it could be boiled down further to almost nothing LOL. (Only thing is, I'm not really a more or less "exhortative bulletpoints" kind of guy - I can get into linguistic points and develop approaches from certainly the bottom up, as the more detailed stuff in my links hopefully shows, but I find it harder, indeed often pointless, to talk in terms of generalities, or would direct people to books that say such things better than I still can't!).

All due respect but if I'm reading you right ("...: TO JUST ASSIST" lol) I think you're just going to be magnifying problems similar to those in JHSs if you or whoever honestly expects ESTs to be the ones coming up with at least half the bright ideas. It's a tall enough order asking many actual JTEs to come up with the communicative goods, and ALTs were drafted in for a reason. It would be absolute madness to not make them the first port of call for ideas in ESs, and it's what they are being paid for, right? If however the general feeling is that none of them are competent or trustworthy enough then I really don't see that there can be much progress.* Trust the native speaker and delegate the planning duties to them or let them take them on. (Ooh was that an exhortative point?). You could be pleasantly surprised if you genuinely do. And if you don't, it should come as no surprise that the plan that you had in mind (which may've been very weak, even to an incompetent ALT's eye) isn't the one that ends up being developed however further and executed. You can't have non-native speakers who haven't even qualified in let alone taught English be calling the shots still. It is bad enough assisting in some JHSs but I shudder to think of how toe-curling it would be to assist (rather than simply take the lead, as I did) in most ESs. (Sorry if that sounds dismissive, but one has to ultimately be blunt about the relative linguistic abilities involved and possibly "competing" here. I don't think any EST being totally honest with themselves would be too offended with the notion that some if not most ALTs could~would at least linguistically do a better job than the EST if genuinely asked or allowed to).

Case in point is that stuff you've written about simple communicative lessons built around a main language point plus allied content words. Sounds fancy but let's be realistic. IME what this all ends up looking like is "plans" on "topics" like 'Days of the Week'. Said lesson plan consists of a sparse listing of the seven days involved (well, duh) plus if you're lucky a phrase or two such as Today is ___day, and perhaps What's today? (but not anything trickier and less fudgy but genuinely useful like What day is it today? (vs. What's today's date? LOL)). Or a plan about which colour we like best, or similarly inspired, inspiring stuff. And that is talk that is supposed to fill an hour? Shoot me now.

If however you really need to maintain that the EST has to have a role in planning (and I appreciate that there are some real bozo ALTs around), then I'd advise that they look for that "magic ingredient", that bit of creative communicative genius that elevates a relatively uninspired, predictable activity into something a bit more exciting and compelling for the kids and indeed the ALT. Below are a few examples to help show what I'm on about here.

1) The topic of Animals. A pedestrian approach might be to talk about what (how many) pets one has: I have a rabbit, a hamster, and two goldfish. Grind those sentences out. Then have the unbridled joy of asking your classmates what pets they have (even though you may well know a lot of the answers already). Implicit in all this is the concept of liking too: I like rabbits (which is why I have one). Don't get me wrong, these are perfectly fine examples in and of themselves, but there isn't that much juice to be had from them (unless of course we are already good conversationalists with skills up to the task of extending the talk beyond but on the basis of those "springboard" examples: Oh you have a rabbit? Is it a boy or a girl? What's his/her name, what do you call him/her? What's his favourite food? Got any photos? Oh so cute! Oh, and you let him run around the house sometimes eh! I read a funny story once about a rabbit who nibbled a bit too much on an electric cable... . Etc etc). Anyhoo what I did instead was springboard off the idea of noticing and remarking on (stray or partly hidden) animals: Ooh, look, a chicken (has wondered into the classroom)!. Oooh, look, (there are) two monkeys (in that tree in the picture)! Incidental counting and plurals too eh. All with the help of pictures that didn't take too much to draw or find. A subsequent and partly recycling though equally extensional activity involved finding fellow animals on the basis of liked foods e.g. a somewhat secretly alien card-holding student would ask another student if they liked nattou, and if they did, they'd band together and go off and try to find more aliens. A variant could be if you can guess what food the card holder likes then they join your now-disparate group (this will increase the range of questions asked, but could slow the game down compared to the build-a-one-species-only-group variant, where the question to ask is clear and based on the card you the questioner rather than the answerer holds). End of the class they counted how many of each animal there were (how many aliens /z/ versus horses /iz/ or cats /s/ or sheep /-/ or whatever). I've explained things at greater though perhaps less clear n concise length in an above link.

2) "Activities in progress". A classic activity is say a picture dictation. Onto a template of a street scene each student would hopefully draw a man walking his dog on the basis of hearing 'A man is walking his dog', and so on. Or how about the hoary old chesnut of miming an activity while other guess what it is you are (more or less obviously) doing. All fun in a way, but there is no actual reason to be hearing or exchanging this information other than that it is an activity that I the teacher have imposed. It bears little resemblance to real-life usage (unless the students make the jump, often for themselves, that the action being described may in real life be less directly visible due to obscured line of sight, or distance in time if in fact taking place tomorrow rather than today, and so on and so forth) and is ultimately a poor excuse of (for?) an "information gap", with with the first more receptive than productive. Anyway let's assume that the students have already met the copula in basic patterns such as I'm (a) ..., He/She's (a) ... , They're ... (s). The addition of -ings isn't then too much of a stretch, but what's the real reason here for using them? How about a stakeout? There was a great picture in IIRC English File somewhere of silhouettes of figures seen through the windows of various apartments in an apartment building. In response to questions such as What's the guy in 104 doing? What's going on in 402? What are they doing in 306 now? And (in) 307? and so on, students would answer with simple sentences like He's/She's/They're ...ing. They could then pair off and ask each other, with the questions then if necessary simply being the room numbers.

If your ESTs can't add this magic ingredient (let's call it "simply" a METAFUNCTION), let alone possibly even muster the more pedestrian elements, then you could have a problem, certainly in wresting creative control and thus participatory willingness away from the native speaker in the equation (that is, I can't speak for anyone else, but when teaching I want to be actually communicating rather than simply going through the motions of "teaching whatever"). Either way, have fun!

*It would help of course if the powers that be could decide what the requisite qualifications and/or experience should be for certainly these ES (A)LT positions and hire and pay accordingly (that is, directly and more, respectively). As it is I guess they will continue to pay peanuts (I mean after the dispatchers etc have taken their cut) but still complain, often in apparent commiseration with the very hard-done-by dispatcher, about getting their fair share of supposed monkeys (not that ostensibly qualified teachers are always that much better, just look at the average JTE for example LOL. But hey, they have to teach to the test etc, the poor souls, no middle way through all that is there! :eyeroll:).