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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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 Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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| I should have mentioned that I regularly engage in conversation exchange with Japanese backpackers in Sydney, so I already have a reasonable idea of what its like to teach someone english. |
Without knowing exactly what you do there, I would have to be quite skeptical about that statement. Sorry, but it's true.
1. Conversation school students come in all ages, from toddlers to retirees.
2. Conversation schools themselves have walls and staff that you have to deal with, which are different from what you do.
3. Conversation schools often have their own formats that teachers have to follow, even if they don't like them or don't agree with them.
4. Conversation schools often have back to back class schedules that frustrate teachers, or at least put them in a real work environment, probably unlike what you are doing now.
5. Just working is only half of life in Japan as a conversation school teacher. There is also home life, which is something different than what you are accustomed to, and that takes quite a bit to get used to in some cases. I'm not just referring to the crackerbox size of apartments, but the commute, problems that have to be solved in Japanese (utilities breakdown, TV service, phone service, problems with neighbors, etc.), parking, dealing with everything else in life in relative isolation, etc. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 1:32 am Post subject: Re: On another note... |
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| Ryumicko wrote: |
Also, I should have mentioned that I regularly engage in conversation exchange with Japanese backpackers in Sydney, so I already have a reasonable idea of what its like to teach someone english. It has been both hard, and very rewarding so far. |
Sitting over a cup of coffee and shooting the breeze with a couple of non-native speakers and trying to work through their imperfect English is not really what I call teaching. I might also add that if they are on working holiday they will likely be motivated to speak English with a native speaker. A large majority of the time here its simply an effort to get students to open their mouths and show an interest in what you are doing. Do that day in and day out and it gets very stale very quickly when you have bored, unmotivated and lazy students you have to look after. Its not all fun and games and light breezy conversation with motivated students.
You will probably experience a similar type thing at the big chain schools, where you sit in a class for forty minutes, have a teacher's book in front of you and work through the lesson in a step-by-step, paint by numbers routine, where you essentially become a conversation partner.
Yes students are speaking English and conversation is taking place but everything is scripted to the letter and all you have to do is follow the script and turn on the tape.
That is why people initially come with noprevious experience in teaching, little or no knowledge about language learning, no qualifications, get a job here and be up and running within a couple of days. They equate speaking with teaching and a transfer of knowledge. What students get from you is input by hearing native English and speaking English. They could probably also get it from listening to the radio or playing a CD. (PS Its funny how small talk or chatting becomes language exchange or conversation exchange and becomes a bona-fide teaching qualification for essentially doing nothing but speaking your native language). Do you exchange language with native speakers too?
What proper EFL/ESL teaching is about, is having or using a methodology based on a theory of language learning, and there are literally dozens of methodologies or approaches that teachers can choose from. Many of them you will not have heard of before. The Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Communicative Approach, Audio-Lingual method, the Natural Approach. Only once you understand what each these are and how they are applied can you understand what language teaching and how to teach a lesson is all about and how to actually transmit knowledge to your students.
What you are doing with your students is a kind of Direct Approach, where you will only use English, perhaps ask and answer questions, engage in simple dialog and use English in semi-natural type setting. There is however far more to teaching than just sitting in a room talking at students for an hour. Do you do warm up activities, vocabulary building? Pattern drills? Infomation gap activities? Perhaps a quiz or a listening exercise. I find it hard to see how you do this unless you are actually teaching an ESL class in Australia, for which most teachers are CELTA qualified and have degrees in Linguistics etc.
Most people come here and after six months whine about how boring the lessons are and the NOVA 'method' but the majority of new teachers have no 'philosophy' or teahcing approach or bag of tricks they can use to replace what they have been using.They want a better job with better pay, but have no idea of teaching methods or techniques and have not been properly trained. As Glenski mentioned, it takes skill and practice to develop a lesson plan from scratch that will actually work with a group of students, and you have to be prepared for the odd dud, where a planned lesson goes flat on you, and you have to rescue the rest of the lesson. Do you know how to structure a listening exercise? Do a brainstorming activity?
There is a lot you can still learn about teaching foreign languages and to suggest that being able to talk to foreign backpackers makes you somehow qualified or experienced is a gross underestimation of what professional language teachers do.
You asked in another thread why EFL has such a bad reputation and seems unprofessional, and its because a majority of its practitioners though keen, lack proper skills and proper training and lack specialised knowledge about what they are doing. Aside from the fact that salaries are quite low, I would think that no more than 10% of your average conversation school teacher population has any formal training or certification in EFL. Teaching is not just about shooting the breeze with students, but its also about actually teaching them something, when most people don't actually know how to teach them as they have never learnt. They come with a BA, get a on a plane and they are into it a week after arriving. That is why EFL here and in most countries is not considering real teaching, like you would find in a school back in Australia, where teachers are trained and certified before they are let loose on students. AS has been said on this forum in the past, EFL is a kind of 'edutainment' where teaching English is a bit like being a highly paid performer. Words like teaching 'clown' get thrown around, which shows that some teachers have no respect for themselves, their jobs and their students.
Do a CELTA course first, (will cost you a couple of grand, far cheaper than a three year degree) and you will soon see whether you are cut out for teaching as a job or a potential career, rather than an underqualified part time amateur who calls himself a teacher because he happens to have been born in an English speaking country and can get a one year work visa here.
Having learnt Japanese will help, but trying asking the average Japanese person to teach you Japanese and they wont know how, as the acquired language naturally and have no idea how to teach their own language to non-native speakers of Japanese. Same with foreigners here teaching English. You know how to speak English, but you dont know why, and dont know how to explain what you know to non-native speakers without the use of props and teaching aids.
You at least will have an idea about how languages work and know why things work the way they do, notions of grammar and syntax in Japanese etc but proper language teacher training will give you a proper foundation to work from, not just from exchanging small talk in a non-classroom setting. |
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Revenant
Mod Team
Joined: 28 Jul 2005
Posts: 1109
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| Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 4:31 am Post subject: Re: On another note... |
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[quote="Ryumicko"]
| Quote: |
Also, I should have mentioned that I regularly engage in conversation exchange with Japanese backpackers in Sydney, so I already have a reasonable idea of what its like to teach someone english. It has been both hard, and very rewarding so far. |
You have tasted the whipped cream of a double fudge sundae and are stating you have a reasonable idea of what the sundae tastes like.
After you have taught classes of kids, been an assistant language teacher, taught classes of adults (or kids) with 10-20 in the class, walked into some company like Sony and taught a bunch of engineers or huge ability ranges, and or worked in a Juku (cram school), then I would say you know reasonably well what its like to teach someone English.... and more appropriately how to teach someone English in Japan. |
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Ryumicko
Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 37
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| Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:05 pm Post subject: Re: On another note... |
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Hehehe...
There you go, that shows how blindly optomistic i am  .
As far as the lifestyle stuff goes, the challenge is what im coming for if you know what i mean.
As far as the teaching goes, i obviously have no idea about the work on a proffessional a level. The comment that you all replied to:
" I should have mentioned... etc" was not meant to be a " Im already a competant teacher". Sorry if it came across that way.
The lesson planning, the teaching methods and the obstacles that have to be negotiated with teaching another language all sound very interesting.
I do none of this for my conversation exchange, so im sure teaching in a workplace is going to be a whole new kettle of fish.
Once again, thankyou for all the great info and advice, ive taken it all on board.
Japan in April 2006.
Cheers.
Mick |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:21 pm Post subject: |
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FWIW I came here as a raw green newbie in the late 80's when the Japan bubble was at its height and the JET program was in its first intake. No Japanese and one suitcase and no idea what to expect. I didnt even know about EFL teaching jobs here before I came here so in a sense I had no pre-conceived ideas about teaching and what a teacher is.
I probably knew less about Japan than you do at that time. Most of my comments (and Glenski's, though i cant speak for him, come from years of trial and error and the school of hard knocks. You will get a taste of it for yourself though I could think of far worse places to come to.
We dont try and be the grinch who stole Christmas or try and put you off, but just speak from the voice of experience and offer practical realistic, and pragmatic advice. We dont have any axes to grind or agendas against NOVA or a particular company (OK, maybe one or two) but i think you will find that most of what you read on here is based on someones experience or simply common sense.
You will discover things for yourself here, whether you listen to us or not, but i think what I am simply saying is don't get your hopes up, things are not like they were in the old days and for most people, the rose-tinted spectacles come off fairly quickly once reality and a 9-5 job, a formidable language barrier and culture shock smacks them in the face. You can prepare as best you can, but only you really know what you want, even if it doesnt appear so now. You will learn soon enough where your interests and passions lie so dont let me put you off. teaching in Japan is not the be all and end all and some people come here only for a year or two. the mistake I think is in thinking that you come on a semi-working holiday, part time etc and expect all the trimmings and perks or a full time regularly paid teacher. Even most of those guys are living pay check to pay check or working 6-day weeks and teaching privates etc. Its not much of a life, working all the time just to stay afloat financially.
You never know you might decide at one point to go back to uni so you can get that degree and come back and do it properly. When you develop a hunger for something you will do what ever it takes to get it. You just simply havent tasted that hunger yet. |
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