Job Discussion Forums

[trickster]

Hello all!

I am a long time lurker and first time poster on this board. I have a few questions, but as they are quite specific (and long-winded) I'm going to post them individually.

I have been working at a small school on Shikoku for a couple of weeks and I am in need of some help with the Eiken exams for JHS / HS students. I am expected to "train" the students to pass these exams.

Although I am not very impressed with the exam format and the focus on receptive skills - one of the students has passed pre-2nd grade, but cannot string a sentence together - I realise that it is my job to help the students get through it.

The "training" undertaken by the previous teacher involved reading previous test papers out in class and then telling the students if they were right or wrong. To my mind, there isn't any teaching going on at all, just testing. I've been avoiding this method in my classes so far, but I am coming under pressure to do exactly the same from now on. Not only is this incredibly dull for me, I don't think it is very motivating for the students either.

I've searched the internet to try and find an English syllabus for the exams , so at least I can focus on specific grammar points in the lessons, however I can't seem to find anything - even on the official website. I have written an email to the organisation and am waiting for a response.

I've also searched to see if anyone has any lesson plans specifically geared to these exams, again with no results.

If anyone has any tips, tricks, links to websites or any other advice I'd be very grateful.


Thanks



trickster

[Inflames]

Just a quick question first. Is this your first teaching job in Japan?
I just asked as your school wants you to keep doing what the other teacher did, and I'd be inclined to just do that (even though it goes against what you think you should be doing).

Does your school have any resources about eiken? Bookstores here have tons of books on eiken, although they're mostly in Japanese (as it isn't used outside of Japan). I'm assuming you don't speak Japanese, so any lesson plans out there wouldn't be worth it. I've never taught eiken before and I've only heard of native teachers teaching it a few times, just because, for the sake of passing, a Japanese teacher would be a lot easier.

I would just look at whatever your school has and sample eiken tests, just to come up with a general idea of what is on there, and plan lessons based on that (don't forget to teach general test-taking tips).

[wintersweet]

Yeah, I did a little Eiken tutoring. I couldn't find any relevant English info, either, but my client brought me a huge binder with a bunch of photocopied sample Eiken tests. I thought the part where you have to narrate a story based on some pictures was pretty good, and offers a lot of opportunity for practicing various strategies.

If the students and administration are used to the drill-explain method, perhaps incorporating a short period of that will make them happy and you can do more interesting and useful stuff the rest of the time.

[trickster]

Thanks for the responses.

Yes, this is my first job in Japan, but not my first teaching job - I taught in the UK for a year or so before coming out. My Japanese language ability is very limited at the moment.

The school has quite limited resources for the Eiken tests - just some books containing complete tests from previous years. A significant part of these is written in Japanese, so I can't understand it.

I think I'd better revert to testing for a while to keep the administration happy, work out what the students need to know and then gear lessons around that. This is more or less the conclusion that I'd come to already, but thanks for helping out.