Job Discussion Forums

[kovac]

Another quirk from the moaner....nice title though (see what I did with the 3's...its my 3rd posting with the same title, clever huh !? I should have a job in advertising or design or hollywood or summat...)

Recently a particulalry interesting thing happened...I teach at a number of elementary schools as an ALT, out of 6 only one has any english speaking staff, my Japanese aint no great shakes but I can communicate, make requests,plan lessons, chit chat, etc, etc in Japanese, it has become the norm in all of my schools....bar one....the one where a member of staff declares "I have the english"....iyadesu...

School in question ; the headmaster lived in India for 4 years, and as English is a very common 2nd spoken language in India, he picked alot up, I would guess around a 400 to 500 TOEIC level.

I plan out lessons with guidelines on language and lesson plans in both languages, I have it double checked by three sources who are billingual, I utilise Japanese in class time only to explain game rules or activities, even then, I say it once in english, once in Japanese, and a mix of both to clarify...I do this for the reasons a) I only have 30 mins once a week to teach the children b) As although I am "assistant" language teacher, the majority of teachers I work with have almost no English speaking ability or if they have it are reluctant to use it or translate confidently, and almost all seem to appreciate my use of Japanese for explanation/translation/explanation (ah ! a 20 minute break ! I can do some marking ! they think...) or some just turn up and seem completely dis-interested in the whole process...Some just leave the room when I enter...whether its out of "Its ok, he knows what hes doing I can have a cup of tea" or "I just dont really care"...I dont know....

Anyway...back to case in hand....now hear this... Recently Im approached by aforementioned headmaster, he looks over my lesson plans and comments how organised they are, checks the Japanese and its all in order, then he proceeds to tell me, I dont want you to use Japanese in the classroom, I want you only to speak English, all the time, even if it is explaining activities, just English, even when you go to a classroom and have lunch with the children....

I can hear the "immersion-ists" say "yeah, so you should ! and they recount the "in my childhood, my mother only spoke to me in X language story ; when I went to X country I realised I was fluent..."

dakedo....he told me ALL of this, every WORD in Japanese... despite the fact he speaks English...he picked up my notes and used one hockneyed phrase in English "TURANSURATO ? OK ? I do ?" waving my notes...intending he would scan over my notes to translate, despite the fact, I have included, kanji, kana, romaji, kana pronun, etc its been checked by myself (arduously) 2 Japanese with TOEIC scores over 900 and one bilingual half japanese/canadian, which I had informed him off...

The words HELLER and JOSEPH and 22 and CATCH leapt to mind....

MAN GO ROOM WITH JAPANESE CHILDREN, SHOUT ENGLISH TILL CHILDREN UNDERSTAND....

Seems to be the general consenus...end result...Japanese child when asked "how old are you ?" replies "Im fine thank you"....whilst teacher rocks back and forth in the corner derangedly uttering "unko fudebako haita !" or some other inane picked up childish banter...

As aforementioned checkers said on my recount of this, people expecting the 100% English input / 100% English output are just living in a fantasy world...

Im sure other ALT's out there have similar experiences, share em with me cos I just had to go into ignorant mode after this ; that day when spoken to by Japanese staff with no english; reply in English, just to see how far the "recommended" technique goes down...They looked at me like I was insulting them....and do we want to insult a learning generation of children ?

[Iwantmyrightsnow]

Can completely understand why you want to use Japanese when you only have 30 mins with students. I don't think you are wrong but the principal isn't either. By using Japanese you are setting up students to just sit and wait for a translation. It becomes a mindset that is hard to break. There are pros and cons to both methods and evidence to support either.

[Glenski]

On a similar note, the HS where I teach (as a FT teacher, not ALT) changed its curriculum this year so that we would be doing team teaching many classes. The book is a poor Ministry-approved one, but the approach we are to take involves the following use of it.

1. Use a dialog from the book (or create one). Explain the situation for it and speak the dialog with your team partner. All English. Ask students to identify main points and perhaps answer a couple of comprehension questions.

2. Have the whole class (yes, high school level, not elementary or junior high) repeat every line. First they cannot see the dialog, but they might eventually get a copy. Then, in various permutations, have half of the room do the two roles in it. This process wastes about 20 minutes.

3. Put the key sentence on the board, do NOT explain in grammatical terms what it means, but have the kids practice using it somehow with a partner or by themselves (oral vs. written, respectively).

4. Expect all of this osmotic learning to generate results.

The class is only 45 minutes long.

They have done this for several years in junior high, and they are pleased with the results, even though it is ludicrous to have kids doing t his for THREE YEARS. Foreigners from other countries who look in on these classes are shocked at such a method.

Problem is in high school. The grammar points are harder to explain totally in English. So, we occasionally use Japanese. Some of our classes did not graduate from our own junior high school, and therefore they are unfamiliar with this approach. Some of those same students started high school last year, but the curriculum was different even with the same book, so this year they are overwhelmed with the difference. Grades are low for everyone, even kids who came from our own junior high, and even when we use Japanese to explain things. The Japanese team partners do this, mostly.

Our vice-principal is in favor of this program. Last year, he was head of the junior high, and he had instituted such a dismal program there, but he is proud of it. He claims it has enormous success.

Our head of high school thinks the program sucks in HS, but he has no power to change it. All of the Japanese team teachers hate this system.

So, why don't we get the head of the English department to change things? Well, he is my team partner! The vice-principal overrules him.

[Celeste]

And this is why a little knowledge is a dangerous thing! I too have experienced such half hearted attempts at communicative classes. The absolutley WARPED versions of CELTA style lessons that get created in Japan are amazing.

I find that for my elementary schools, it works fairly well if I take the lead in classes and don't let the Japanese teachers translate. One way that you can get out of translating in class is to ask the kids to do it. After giving a few examples, I ask the kids what the topic is in Japanese. If they get it right, we carry on with the rest of the lesson- if not we stop and have some different examples or perhaps a really sneaky fast word or two in the mother tongue. You can't start really complex lessons this way until you are sure that the kids understand basic classroom commands in English.(Stand up, sit down, find a partner, etc.) You can get around this by having the Japanese teacher act as a student during the lesson and the kids can follow his/her example. After one or two classes, have them join you at the front of the room again)

As for highschool - I used to teach that in Korea, and it worked out that the lessons I was teaching (100% alone) reinforced the grammar lessons taught by the other English teachers. As this was the case, there was no need for me to attempt rxplanations in English- sometimes I did, though, when it was apparent that the students didn't thoroughly understand how to use the structure.

[Glenski]

[guest of Japan]

Thank you Kovac. You've started a thread of great interest to me.

Like Glenski I teach in a private high school. All lessons are team taught unless that Japanese teacher has another engagement, which happens pretty frequently. In my case it was up to me and another foreign teacher to design the curriculum for 1st year oral communication classes. We also choose the textbook for that class. Actually, since this is my first year at that school, the other foreign teacher chose the text for this year, but we like it so much we chose it for next year as well. In case anyone is interested the text is "Expressways".

In classes I am expected to lead the classes using only English. I sometimes use Japanese in one on one situations within the class, but seldom from the front of the room. My classes are streamed by abilitity. The higher level classes require very little Japanese support, while the lower levels need quite a lot. Like Celeste, I will often check for understanding of vocabulary and sentence meaning by having the students give a translation.

I have great sympathy for both Glenski and Kovac. For Glenski my sympathy lies in the fact that you have a method be forced down on you. Even the best methods don't always work. The one you describe sounds like the English becomes akin to elevator music to the students. They notice the English, but don't really listen to it. It must really be a chore for both students and teachers to plow through the class.

For Kovac, you indeed are in a catch-22. Last year I worked in an extremely low level high school and I was expected to speak only English to the students at all times. Of course it's a wonderful theory, but the students knew practically zero English and had no desire to learn any. For me it was a year spent as the circus side show that nobody watches. That school was a family business, and the principal had no background in education (he had a doctorate in computer science) yet he had ideas on how English should be taught (he had horrid spoken English). I think that you may have more success with immersion in elementary schools. You probably need to establish patterns of communication with the students. Once they understand the routines you follow and can have expectations of what you want them to do, you won't need to rely on Japanese so much.

I hope this thread has a long life because I think it will expose a lot of the difficulties teaching in the Japanese school system and maybe present a few ideas on how to get by or justification to get out.

[Dr.J]

I work in a JHS - same experience. Most teachers don't get it, and the system is totally rigged against it.

My pet peeve is the testing system, which rewards only 100% accuracy and memorizing skills, while PENALIZING you if you write a lot or attempt difficult structures.

In addition, there is NO oral test, but then that's the norm for Japan. Even if the teacher can't speak English, they can do enough for an oral test and they know it. But with no strong teacher's union and 1000 other extra tasks to do (like school clubs, being surrogate parents) I'm not surprised it's not on top of their priority list.

Personally, I support the 'all English' classroom idea, and people who are against it often don't realise just how much you can get across with carefully prepared pictures and demonstrations. The exception is as someone mentioned, high school kids who are already too far gone for it to work (and the occasional word chucked in; I'm not an English nazi). But I believe that it can work 100% at elementary school.