Job Discussion Forums

[User N. Ame]

[TokyoLiz]

Okay, I relent on the flamebait ditto comment.　Here's my two yen, since the OP asked for it .

ALTs who go on to other jobs in Japan are not entirely failures in terms of the JET program. They contribute to the Japanese economy and enrich the culture by being visible foreigners who have made their own way beyond the hand-holding that JET provides. But it's still not good value for money.

The Ministry put out a document in 2003 on improving English ability, which looks somewhat progressive but is quite vague. Please read the Mombukagakusho document - http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/03072801.htm which talks about two important initiatives which, to some degree, are served by foreigners who come in to work, and who stay on and the Japanese who are profficient in English who can take part in the changes:

Can anyone comment, from research or articles or field experience, on how effective this plan has been?

Promotion of the hiring of ALTs with advanced abilities as full-time teachers
From 2003, by making an additional quota to the fixed number of teachers at junior high schools, the aim is to appoint 300 people as full-time junior high school teachers over the next three years with the future goal of appointing 1,000 junior and senior high school teachers. Thus, the use of native speakers of English, such as ALTs with excellent experience, will be promoted.
Promotion of the use of local personnel who are proficient in English
Using members of society who are proficient in English, English education will be promoted through the Gakko Iki-Iki Plan6, special licenses, and the special part-time instructor system.

My own take -
I've always held that ALTs and NTEs (those native teachers of English who work solo) should have a teaching credential and experience at the grade level they teach and/or ELT training. I was 10 years a teacher in ELT, as was my former supervisor at an English school in Canada, when we participated in the JET program some years ago. We both spent a year in Japan as JETs and returned to Canada. I'm back here working in high schools, but I don't know where she's at these days.

Door3344 wrote

[User N. Ame]

[kdynamic]

I think just saying "JET should hire qualified EFL teachers" is an extremely one-dimensional appraisal of the situation. Imagine they did implement such a policy. Now imagine those qualified teachers showing up at a school where they have a JTE who has no idea how to use their skills, a bureaucracy working against them changing anything to implementing ideas, the hugely important tests take precedence over actually improving the English level of the students.... you see where I am going with this? The whole system would have to be changed to actually utilized highly qualified ALTs.

[User N. Ame]

[TokyoLiz]

KYdynamic wrote

[fluffyhamster]

[canuck]

http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,,2092236,00.html

[TokyoLiz]

Canuck,

After reading the article, it makes me agree with Porcaro on one point. Having a resident foreigner in rural areas, under the jurisdiction of a yakuba or city hall or prefectural office, is a great idea. CIRs do this job. But putting unqualified, unskilled people in the schools to assist English teachers is not the most productive way to expose kids to the world outside Japan.

CIRs can go to schools, give one off lectures about their cultures and customs and put on the friendly gaijin face.

The ALTs aren't good value for money.

[Nagoyaguy]

[kdynamic]

Tokyoliz: I think you proved my point. If highly qualified JTE's aren't even being effectively used in the classroom, how can one expect a foriegn teacher who might not know the lay of the land and might have a language barrier issue to fair any better? The system would have to be ready to accept an influx of real trained teachers to do real teaching.

I think that Japan would benefit greatly from a lot more CIRs. But CIRs run into their own set of problems. Furthermore, worldwide there just aren't that many people with both the qualifications and the desire to be CIRs. And the numbers of CIRs have been falling lately, not rising.

Perhaps the best thing that could be done would be to bring in a lot more CIRs from countries with major minority populations in Japan, such as Brazil, China, and the Philipines, instead of so many from English speaking countries.

[TokyoLiz]

Wow! This is amazing. For the first time in a long time, a thread is about people agreeing

KYdynamic, you've hit it. Already bilingual Japanese/xlanguage CIRs would be way more valuable in city halls, and there is a huge pool to draw from in S. America, especially Brazil and Peru.

Nagoyaguy, ooh, yeah. The 'right' kind of foreigner. Case in point - a school I deal with wanted a highly qualified, bilingual (but English native speaking) person. That language rule disqualified the most qualified people I met from so many countries, and left us with a much smaller pool of native English speaking candidates. Note, this was not a JET situation, but the phenomena is, I believe, a legacy of JET.

I'm still very greatful I got to be on the JET program for one year. I had no intention of recontracting when I signed up, and was happy to hand over my apartment, assorted acquired gak to the next young, genki teacher, and go back to Canada. I didn't see it as a job so much as a really big scholarship that helped me learn about Japan, the people, the language, and a lot about classroom dynamics in elementary/junior high school. I worked 6 years in adult ESL in Canada before I did JET, and returned to adult ESL for another 2 years in Canada.

But I still think, after seeing it from the inside and out, the input to result ratio for English acquisition is abysmal.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[TokyoLiz]

Gambattebigbamboom,

The kids can, too, produce English! They simply need adequate modeling. In my teaching experience in a jr high school here, the students were given clear rubrics that described what they had to produce. We taught them conversation gambits - how to open a conversation, how to move it along, etc. We also showed them what was a weak presentation/conversation and what is an exemplary one, and showed them how they'd be graded.

The textbook the JTEs and foreign teachers used was not Mombukagakusho prescribed material, and is a well-supported monolingual English textbook that teaches the four skills.

The students written and spoken assignments demonstrated they were imaginitive, thoughtful (I already knew this from interaction in Japanese). Although the work was not grammatically correct, their comprehension and fluency were adequate for daily interaction exclusively in English. The students were engaged in English conversation with their peers (in the communication class) and foreign and Japanese teachers (in and out of class).

Sure, there were kids who slacked but I'd say 70 percent were on task and progressing. Given adequate models, reasonable expectations, a lot of practice with functional English (how to initiate conversation, how to change subject, how to clarify a point, etc.) the majority of kids can succeed in managing a simple conversation on the topics Mombukagakusho sets out. The curriculum guidline has the usual stuff - daily interaction, giving and receiving directions, describing personal interests. etc.

JTEs often say their students are weak or stupid. This is a feature of Japanese culture that can become pathological with teachers believing the kids are weak and stupid. When it becomes pathological, it becomes an excuse for weak instruction.

Feh.

[fluffyhamster]