Job Discussion Forums

[Brooks]

this is something that bugs me, and other people too.

I mean about JTEs who don`t speak English, who try to avoid speaking English.
I know teachers who speak English well, some that don`t but at least try to.

I met a juku teacher four years ago who taught English but didn`t speak English well, and felt bad about it and asked me to help him. Ok, I thought. Good attitude.
My wife is an English and Japanese teacher, and she isn`t perfect, she makes a few grammar mistakes and her pronunciation could be better, but she tries, and never hesitates to speak English.

Why would anyone become an English teacher and not want to speak English? I know English is hard, and some people are shy/nervous/insecure, but why?

[Doglover]

[angrysoba]

If the Japanese teacher refuses to speak English in class or in preparing lessons then it's unreasonable to expect the students to speak it.

I remember teaching one class in which the students were playing karuta. There were cards laid out on the table of various body parts and the students had to slam the card when they heard me say 'head', for example. The first student to slam the card gets the card.

Anyway, I would shout out 'head', the JTE would then say 'atama', I would say 'leg' and he would say 'ashi'. The whole game became pointless.

He would even translate simple instructions such as 'stand up' and 'please listen'.

He shouldn't have been an English teacher, and I don't think he wanted to be, but this was in an elementary school and they were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[shuize]

I think I've posted something on this subject before. Ah, yes. Climbing in my way-back machine, I found this post in the off-topic China forum:

[abufletcher]

Reasons students in my pre-service course of future Japanese EFL teachers have given me for why they want to be a teachers:

1. School lunches are so tasty and I want to eat them everyday.
2. I want be English teacher because I'm want learning English very much.

Assuming that JTEs actually WANT to teach English is a mistake. For the most part, they are just there in the system, filling a slot. BTW, you don't want to know WHY students become English majors. Trust me. It's certainly not a love of (or much less ability in) English.

[Jazz1975]

[Brooks]

no, Doglover, I certainly know English is taught like a dead language by many (but not all) JTEs.
I was thinking of a couple teachers that avoid speaking English. One in particular who can`t even mutter "hello" or say anything in English.

I remember my high school as a student, and all the foreign language teachers could speak French, German, Spanish, and Russian to varying degrees, from near fluency to only an adequate level.

[PAULH]

[kdynamic]

Here's some food for thought: all the JTE's I have known who speak great English are actually former JTEs who are now working at higher levels in their schools or at the prefectural Education office. Moral of the story - the good ones get promoted out of the classroom.

[Brooks]

Kdynamic, I agree.
The bilingual teachers did get promoted where I have worked.

It seems that having to handle the foreign teachers is a job some want to avoid, but some Japanese teacher has to do it.

Paul, I know how kids learn English.
I don`t agree with the system, but it is the way it is: to pass the university entrance exams.
Doing well on the Eiken is not that much of a priority.

The guy I am thinking of went to a good university that starts with W and is educated. Another teacher went there, is about the same age, but can speak English. Maybe it is psychological.
Why xenophobes want to teach a foreign language is beyond me.