Job Discussion Forums

[kowlooner]

I've looked through countless pages on the Japan forum and found very few descriptions of exactly how English classes are taught at the chain schools (both the large ones and some of the smaller ones), but seemingly hundreds of posts about this or that job interview and whether this school or that school is better to work for ... in terms of benefits, pay, days off, etc.

From an ESL perspective, it would be interesting to know exactly what a teacher will be getting into at these various employers in terms of the actual teaching situation. PaulH gave a brief description about the Nova routine in one of the stickies. Can we expand on that? And get comparisons of different schools?

I for one, for example, am a bit confused about how someone like Nova could have a textbook yet also have students basically show up whenever the like. Or the Aeon way with their group classes and "round-up" classes - is there any difference? Or ECC which has both structured, year-long courses as well as the flexible show-up thing.

So, all you Aeon, Nova, ECC, and other schools-of-note type folk, how about it? How does your school do it?

[stillnosheep]

Both Nova and Aeon provide classes at different levels, each of which uses a (company produced) textbook. I presume ECC does the same.

Each week all schools in the chain will be teaching the same unit within each level. This lesson will be repeated on various days at various times over the week, if there is sufficient demand for it.

Nova students buy books of tickets allowing them to turn up to 'their' class at any time over the week. Aeon students are placed in a definite class which meets at the same time each week.

Aeon has two parallel types of course: Group and Round-up. One is more grammar based, the other more function based, although the difference between the two is not huge as the grammar is taught in within the context of a functional dialogue and learning how to use English properly to achieve functional communication requires learning the gramatically correct forms of English appropriate to the situation.

The steps in each of the two types of courses are arranged (broadly) as overlapping parallel ladders, ie each of the steps (say A-E) of one ladder half way overlaps each of two steps (say 1-6) of the other. This allows some to climb one ladder quickly, one rung at a time, while others climb half a rung at a time by swopping from one ladder to the other. Those who wish to can take two overlapping courses at the same time, one of each type.

With both systems the same class is repeated at various times throughout the week. The NOVA systyem allows students to choose which particular day and time to take their weekly class. Aeon students sign up for a particular date and time, although they can phone in advance and arrange an alternative day and class, if one is available.

The Aeon system produces greater consistency of attendance within each class. Both the teacher and the students know who to expect at their lesson each week and this can help overcome some student's shyness or reticence to speak out in front of strangers. The teacher can develop a better understanding of individual students strengths and weaknesses, ie a student who finds remembering correct sentence forms difficult and has more difficulties substituting their own ideas into learnt sentence structures may have a better 'ear' for English and have superb pronunciation skills. A good teacher can use this knowledge and place students with complementary strengths together, to the benefit of both, and of the class as a whole.

Other students may not be in a position to commit themselves to such a regular attendance pattern and for such students the flexibility offered by NOVA may outweigh other considerations.

The actual working practices at all eikiwa seem to be similar. Turn up. Check your lessons. Teach them. Write up student reports. Nova teachers tend to teach more classes each week, and are expected to teach straight from the book with little or no preparation time built into their timetable. Aeon charges more per student, it's teachers tend to be teaching for less hours each week but are expected to spend more time on preparation and to produce more visual aids (posters with example dialogues or representations of grammar or sentence structure etc), as well as to participate in 'training meetings' and business meetings, to observe other teacher's lessons, and to have theior lessons observed by others.

In theory Aeon teachers shoukld produce lesson plans for all classes, with experience most of these lesson plans remain unwritten but nevertheless existent in the mind of the teacher. The teacher's book provided for each course spells out exactly what should be happening in each phase of each lesson. After a while the 'method' becomes ingrained and following each step becomes automatic. The skill is in applying the method in a manner best suited to the students within each particular class.

[kowlooner]

Thanks SMS! That was a very comprehensive summary!

Now Nova�s approach in particular makes a bit more sense. I was figuring they were teaching from textbooks in a less systematic way. So anyway, it sounds like if a Nova student misses a week, then he or she basically misses that particular unit in the textbook. Is that right? Or is there any chance to make it up? And what demands are there on teachers in that case?

And what happens if a Nova student decides to show up several times a week rather than once. What happens then? Does he get the same lesson again? How would a teacher at Nova deal with that?

Frankly, the Aeon system seems to make a bit more sense if one is concerned about systematically following a text. On the other hand, if a student misses an Aeon lesson, it appears he would be equally behind the other students. Would that be a correct assumption?

How about teaching hours at these places. What would a �typical� day look like?

And for others. Any ECC folks out there? How about some of the other chains (GEOS, James, Wall Street, etc �)? What do they do, and are there any advantages to working and teaching at these?

Thanks again!

[Luna Chica]

I don't know about other schools, bu the NOVA system works like this... Each student has a file. Everytime they take a class and they do a lesson it is marked off on their file. Students are divided into levels. Each level has a certian amount of lessons in it. In the ten minute break between lessons it is your job to retrieve your files and decide by looking at your students' files which class you are going to teach. Often studetns may have completed a lesson but often they need to repeat the lesson a few times before they get it, and at NOVA no two teachers teach the same lesson the same way. NOVA has a lesson system, but within that system you are free to include your own activities. You need to do this for your students'learning needs, but also for your own sanity. Sometimes it feels like you have taught Level 7b lesson 20 a million times.

The system can be a little daunting at first. It is stressful when you first start to only have ten minutes to retrieve files and plan the lesson, but you will be amazed at how quickly you adapt. When I left NOVA after two years I could write up my files from my previous class, retreive my next ones, plan the lesson, go to the toilet and sometimes even fit in a quick fag.

PM me if you have nay other q's

[stillnosheep]

[kowlooner]

Actually, I'm slightly confused. What Luna Chica said about Nova and checking off lessons / deciding what lesson is to be taught depending on a student's file and what SNS said about the entire chain teaching the same unit in the same week seem to be slightly at odds. Any help here?

And another question. How do the Nova / Aeon materials differ from commonly used textbook series (such as New Interchange or Expressways, etc)? Or is it pretty much the same stuff?

Slightly away from teaching methods, what are your fellow teachers like? Do you work with a small group of folks or are you part of a larger group? Ie - how many of you are there in a typical school? And how many students a day do you teach? SMS mentioned Aeon teachers teach up to 25 hours a week, so roughly 4-5 hours a day?

And still looking for those with experience in other chains!

[Luna Chica]

I worked for NOVA a couple of years ago, so maybe they changed their system, but I seriously doubt it. Each teacher was free to choose any lesson for their students within their level, you could also use your own materials, however it was preferred that you use the textbook at least for par of the lesson. Nova uses a textbook called American Streamline from memory. It was pretty out of date. The grammar side was still fine, but the actual dialogue and pictures etc were very eighties.

[kowlooner]

Thanks Luna C. So how did that work exactly? You just sort of jump around lessons within a given level? Or do you still follow a sequence? And what about the students? Assuming there's no coordinated sequence, wouldn't they get confused when the lessons don't go according to the plan of the textbook they have?

And what was the lesson structure like? Since students show up in a somewhat haphazard way, and again assuming there's no set sequence, what do you do in class? I mean, it looks like it'd be hard to do reviews or assign homework, so what goes on in the class itself?

And SMS. It looks like you're a bit more in the know about Aeon, so what are their class structures like? Since it appears more structured, I'm figuring you would perhaps have a slightly more traditional approach, but please correct me if I'm wrong. What goes on in your classes?

And anybody else want to add anything?

[casual]

[quote="kowlooner"]Thanks Luna C. So how did that work exactly? You just sort of jump around lessons within a given level? Or do you still follow a sequence? And what about the students? Assuming there's no coordinated sequence, wouldn't they get confused when the lessons don't go according to the plan of the textbook they have?

And what was the lesson structure like? Since students show up in a somewhat haphazard way, and again assuming there's no set sequence, what do you do in class? I mean, it looks like it'd be hard to do reviews or assign homework, so what goes on in the class itself?

And SMS. It looks like you're a bit more in the know about Aeon, so what are their class structures like? Since it appears more structured, I'm figuring you would perhaps have a slightly more traditional approach, but please correct me if I'm wrong. What goes on in your classes?

And anybody else want to add anything?[/quote]

At Nova there are 50 lessons in each level(except the lowest ;level) and you can basically pick any lesson you want. The first few lessons are quite basic for each level but overall lessons 1-50 are about the same difficulty level. The lessons are function based i.e getting a haircut, ordering food, environmental issues so its designed to be used in every day life.

Basically there is set vocab in each lesson, as long as the students use it you can amend your activities if you dont like the ones in the book. Its really not difficult at all, you also just tick a few boxes to show students strengths and weaknesses and you can make optional comments if you want.

to be honest very few teachers give homework to students, they should be reviewing the lesson they just did as part of their homework but i would estimate that most of the students dont bother with any lesson reviews, judging by how long some students can be stuck in the same level.

I once taught a guy who had been in the lowest level over 2 years. there are only 10 lessons!! He used to come a few times a week and repeat the same lessons and he still couldnt grasp things like is/are or he/she. It was enough to reduce you to tears! lol

[stillnosheep]

The basic Aeon (adult) lesson plan goes something like*

Warm up to get the students using English: games; smalltalk; etc

Pre-task: Target Language is shown or elicited, visual (poster) showing TL is put up, TL is drilled.

A listening exercise with questions.

A scripted dialogue using choral repetition or that the Students read out in turn (or both).

A written exercise (normally set as homework the previous lesson) to check and correct.

Scripted pair work followed by expansion activity (eg students repeat dialogue adding one extra line each repitition or get to role play the situation using the TL but in their own words)

Closing activity when you bring it all back together, go over difficulties, get students to practice the TL again from the visual, do some pronunciation drill or all of the above and more.

It's fairly standard 'communicative approach' stuff with its emphasis on getting students to use the TL, first in a structured, and then in an increasingly less structured manner.

There are also private classes where the Teacher and Student together decide upon syllabus and class structure, sometimes these are Freetalk around topics decided upon at the end of the previous class and some schools have kids classes. These are structured differently.

Apologies for my misinfo about Nova, possibly it is Geos who also follow a 6 monthly/yearly schedule and repeat the same class at different times during the week.

[kowlooner]

Thanks to Casual and Sheep about the extra info. Actually, I'm a bit surprised that more people aren't jumping in here to describe the actual language teaching environment and method at their schools! I'd of thought that would be more interesting, and useful, to both current and prospective teachers than pay, holidays, housing, and dating policies, which have all been talked to death already!

Anyway, so are the actual lesson structures pretty similar at Aeon and Nova, with the exception of the homework checking?

Also, these lessons seem more suited to lower level students. What about students that can pretty much carry on conversations about most topics yet are still at sort of an intermediate level? By this I mean their grammar is still weak (sentence structure is generally okay, but tense use is a bit iffy) and there are still gaps (sometimes large ones) in their vocabulary base.

Do Nova and Aeon still have the same basic lesson flow when addressing these higher level students? Or does the teacher get more creative in these circumstances? In fact, would teachers at Aeon / Nova come across these types of students very often, or is it mainly at the lower functional levels?

And come on, you ECC, Geos, James, Wall Street, etc types! What's the actual teaching environment and teaching structure like at your places of employment?!

[stillnosheep]

Not too many high intermediate and advanced students about!

As the students become more advanced the grammar becomes more complex. In theory the students' more advanced level of English should mean less need for drilling, more time for (more interesting) expansion activities and greater opportunity to spend time on less-/un-structured use of the Target Language. In practice the vast majority of classes taught are at the high beginner/ low-mid intermediate level.

[casual]

For high level lessons the lesson is pretty much a big discussion point. The book has some vocab and some basic sentence structure for debating, expressing opinions etc.

If a student is on their own they often want a free conversation(mainly high level students). basically talk about anything you want and try to drop in some new vocab and idioms and they will go out fairly happy.

Correcting the students is something you will pick up. If a student has high fluency but makes the odd grammar error i tend not to correct them too much,unless its a very basic or recurring error. You will soon work out who is interested in having strong grammar as opposed to good fluency. I do a few corrections at the end of the lesson or if a student is stuck in the middle of the lesson i write down the sentence structure they are looking for so the student can use it for the rest of the lesson.

Hope this helps

[Luna Chica]

Casual is right. Students are rarely given homework and even if they are they will rarely complete it. There is really no point because they are unlikely to have the same teacher for their next lesson, unless you are at a very small school.

Each lesson is a self contained language structure that does not necessarily follow in numerical sequence.

casual is right, as anywhere, you will find some students progress quickly (although sometimes they shouldn't be levelled up) and some are still in Nova's lowest level (7c) for two years.

I once had a student who was a 70 year-old man who could not retain anything. After two years he still looked at he is, they are kind of structures like it was the first time he had seen it, even though he had done that lesson at least 12 times.

Some people have a knack for language and others struggle more.

[kowlooner]

Thanks guys! Lots of good information.

So, here are a few more things that I'm still interested in knowing. Forgive me for asking again:

1) How exactly do the Nova / Aeon materials differ from commonly used textbook series (such as New Interchange or Expressways, etc)? Or is it pretty much the same stuff? Both Nova and Aeon use their own in-house developed materials, right?

and ...

2) With Nova, assuming there's no coordinated sequence, wouldn't they get confused when the lessons don't go according to the plan of the textbook they have? After all, they do have a textbook, don't they?

Actually, I'm a little disappointed that folks from other schools haven't chimed in yet. I figured it would be interesting to compare and contrast the various schools and their teaching methods. But at least we're all learning a bunch about Nova and Aeon!