Job Discussion Forums

[LongShiKong]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I get the sense teacher-centred drilling is still the norm in Japan.

I recently started working for Shane* in China (est'd in Japan). Training covered literally dozens of drill techniques. Despite the 100s of flashcards we do have, there's none for the random vocabulary beginners are expected to know to complete their phonetic homework. There's very little narrative or meaningful context within students' books.

It wasn't surprising to hear the senior teacher of another private school I worked with in '07 (who taught in Japan) complain of behavioural issues. His method of teaching was to ask the same mundane question to all 20 students in the class one by one. Such teaching struck me as highly unusual having taught in Canada and American-owned private schools in China that emphasized pair and group work, and more task-based methods.

As I had in the past, I used my obligatory office time to develop pairwork activities, games, role plays and other means to centextualize the language taught into meaningful communication tasks. Unfortunately my Chinese TA, was too busy marking workbooks during class time to be of much help to me in organizing such activities.

When they dismissed me, they told me what I expected was too difficult for gr. 4 students and I'd be better off teaching high school. But had the students actually mastered the limited language of the previous levels through meaningful practice, I'm sure what I was doing would've been far too easy for them--I'd be having to add a lot more language.

Even the coursebook author, a TEFL trainer, lecturer and teacher in Japan recognized the inherent problem of over-drilling in her own teaching on her Yahoo Superkids UsersGroup at the time. She claims to have read my advice but for whatever reason, is reluctant to respond.

If autonomy, mastery, and purpose are the secret according to Drive: The Surprising Truth of What Motivates Us, then such methods only instill dependency; allow only for the mastery of responding to cue (operand conditioning) and strip language learning from any communicative function or purpose, inevitably leading to behavioural issues.

I remember from my own gr. 6 French class--within a month, our first teacher left the room in tears, never to return. Where we such naughty kids or was the teaching so dehumanizing that we just naturally rebelled?

* I'd be interested to hear how Shane's changed now that it's been bought out from an academic standpoint. I assume they've replaced their curriculum with Longman, Oxford or some other courseware and possibly gone digital with interactive whiteboards as what Shanghai Shane's doing currently.

[rxk22]

I think anybody that says Japan is on top of things TEFL wise, they are full of it. It is all that you said and more. I still haven't seen good company made flash cards. Most books just wonder around topics, and they never go back and reenforce grammar/vocab learned in the past. Which encourages cramming and then forgetting it forever.

''How are you?'' is still a deal breaker for most students. I am pretty surprised when half the kids even know what that question is. If they do get that, then ''how old are you?'' is game over

I've worked as an ALT and at a conversation school. Seems the one thing that the companies have in common, is that they have absolutely no clue on what is going on. From what their employes want from them, to what their customers demand.

[It's Scary!]

[Mr_Monkey]

I think it's probably more accurate to state that teaching methodologies without any empirical evidence in their support are widespread in Japan.

At the level of individual teachers, it varies. Wildly.

[rxk22]

[G Cthulhu]

[It's Scary!]

Moi?!? Since you quoted another poster quoting me, I think not...

It's a bit confusing...'then again, I tend to edit out the non-essential bits!