Job Discussion Forums

[seattleslman]

Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting on these forums. This site appears to be a valuable resource of information for teaching in Japan.

I am scheduled for an interview with AEON Corporation on September 25th in Seattle, WA. I have looked forward to having the opportunity to live and teach in Japan for quite some time now.
I have some questions regarding the interview process. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

1.) What are the most important factors to keep in mind?
2.) What is a good way to go about creating a sample lesson?
3.) The sample lessons are for Japanese students who possess beginner skills in English, what would be some good topics for the lessons?
4.) Any other advice that someone would be able to provide that will increase my chance for success.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

P.S - I am unsure if this information is relevant or not but, I am a 23 year old Caucasian male.

-SeattleslMan

[seklarwia]

Did you use the search function here? Did you even google search the topic?

This question has been asked here and in many places so many times, I can't even count.

I mean this thread alone: http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=79687&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 , probably answers all your questions and then some plus is really recent since it was only started during the peak hiring season earlier this year.

If you want more ideas about lesson plans, run searchs not only for Aeon but for other eikawa as well as the demo lesson part of the interview is pretty similar for them all.

And you're a white man, not long out of uni... dime a dozen I'm afraid

[seattleslman]

Thanks for the link. I did not use the search function on the forum, the next time I have an inquiry I will be sure to search the topic first. As I said, I am new to this site and ESL, and thus, am looking for guidance wherever I can find it. Thanks again for the link.

[seattleslman]

I read through the posts on forum thread you linked and I still have a few questions. It was emphasized by more than one poster that I should use extremely basic English, that I should show my lesson rather than explain it. I can understand holding up a picture of a ball and saying "Ball" and having the other interviewees repeat a bunch of times, but what about introductions. Is it cool to go up and say "My name is Eric Hanawalt?" Or do I need to even bother with introductions? I am not concerned once the lesson is going, just how to get it started, I would assume I have to say something before jumping into the lesson but I don't know what.

[LaniB]

At my interview we were able to say, "I'm starting the lesson from this point so I will have made introductions etc." I didn't say my name, nor did anyone in my interview (there were 7 of us).

Definitely explain, but explain in basic English. So for a repetitive exercise explain "I am going to say "This is a ball" and I want you to repeat after me, "This is a ball"..... do that a couple of times and then change the tempo, repeating fast and slow. Use gestures to show how many times you want them to repeat, three fingers and "Repeat three times!" "Ball, ball, ball." My favourite of my groups lessons was "above, under, next to, inside" where the interviewee dragged his chair up front and placed a bunch of items on it and the 'students' had to say where each thing was "on the chair, next to the pen." He would change the order of the items and then ask us, "[Name], where is the pen?"

As for jumping straight into the lesson you could say something like, "Today we are going to learn..." and then begin rather than waste time on introductions - 5 minutes is not a lot of time once you get up there!

Good luck.

[Ntalksicated]

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=852283&highlight=aeon+interview#852283

scroll down mid way for my personal experience.

[Okonomiyaki]

I don't want to sound like a total wet blanket, but... I want to sound like an 80% wet, sopping blanket here.

Dude, they're interviewing YOU, NOT US. You're asking US to do your homework. Seriously, they want to know if YOU know how to teach and what to teach, so if we just hand you a lesson plan with all the blanks filled in, we've largely erased the reason for the interview.

YOU do your homework, and we'll wish ya good luck. The resources are out there: read'em, get comfortable with'em, and understand that you'll be using them in your job every day.