Job Discussion Forums

[kotoko]

Hey I think this might be my last post on this subject as I feel I am fighting a losing battle. I'll try to answer as much as possible.

I AM fresh out of college, and, as I explained before, through practice at uni, and all the part time jobs (yeah maybe they all add up to 2 years if you add the time, and the language school was EFL, as in foreign people came, lived in home stays and I taught them). My degree was Japanese and TESOL combined. My Japanese can explain most things but that one lesson, which I had planned as a team teaching lesson, needed the JTE to help explain one thing as it was too difficult to get my tongue around. I am able to plan English only lessons (that is how I taught in summer schools with international kids) but here in my JHS that is not how I tend to plan.

No, Glenski, JETs do not get any training. I'm not saying JET is perfect, I'm saying it shouldn't be stopped altogether. It all depends on what exactly people want from JET. If they want their kids to get better at English through us, then it's probably not going to happen (in my prefecture it is as I said; elem schools tend to give ALTs full lessons, JHS ALTs tend to get stuck in the corner. I don't know about private schools). But if they want kids to get used to seeing gaijin faces instead of cr*pping their pants like their parents do every time they see me in the super market, or if they want to bring more tourists into remote places (my family will be visiting in a few weeks) or if they want someone around to ask questions about whether there is rice in other countries, or to inform that there are 4 seasons in Japan, then I think we are doing well.

I really can't be bothered to defend myself anymore. This is, after all, a forum, and like any forum people like to correct other people. I think JET is great. It's not great for teaching but most JETs do really amazing things in their local communities and my prefecture is one that gives us lots of opportunities to do that. I don't care how many presentations people do, or how many books on English learning people have written. Unless you are a foreign face, in the middle of nowhere, taking to people who have never seen a non-Japanese person before, going to orphanages, helping out with the community, getting stuck in at your school, then (and I'm going to get shouted down for this) people have no right to comment on whether we are a waste of public money or not.

That's my last comment on the subject.

[G Cthulhu]

[G Cthulhu]

[Glenski]

Call it pedantic arse-ism if you like, but I felt it was important to distinguish the actual number of years. The fact that kotoko believes an ESL situation is EFL shows that there is a lack of basic knowledge here, too. Was it already obvious? Perhaps, but some people (I feel) need to have this brought out.

And, yes, I know about JET training, but I was giving kotoko a chance to defend the specifics and to explain whether she felt it was sufficient. That's called fair opportunity, not being disingenuous.

Ok, kotoko, you're not going to reply anymore. Your prerogative, and I won't berate you for leaving or for your opinions. I will just leave you with one thought about your own training, experience and Japanese fluency. If your lesson (English-only or otherwise) is too difficult to explain even with JLPT 2 ability, it's too difficult to be presented. As teachers, we may have to use some L1 in our teachings (a whole other argument here), but the litmus test for any lesson plan is whether students even understand the instructions or the theme. Having written many tests over here, where students find the most ingenious permutations of understanding for the questions I write, I have to say that the KISS principle is the best, although not 100% foolproof. But if they don't get what it is you are trying to teach in the first place, go back to basics in lesson planning and simplify it.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[yangyoseop]

I really hope kotoko wasn't scared off by the crankiness of a few (or is it a couple??) members here. I think she had valid points and didn't deserve to be run out of the thread like that...

[Glenski]

[PO1]

I typically don't post my thoughts as much as I would like to on certain subjects. I just don't like overly critical confrontation on every little nuance of what I say. Forums have lots of contentious subject matter, so I was skeptical even signing up here after lurking for a while. I have tough skin though and you have to if you're going to be a teacher anyhow. Anyway, I hope no one gets run off due to someone else expressing their opinion. The internet has a way of making everything sound "snarky" sometimes.

I think people who have actually experienced the JET Programme have a better perspective on what it is or pertains to be. The same with any type of work. If I was a mechanic for 5 years, I wouldn't want someone who has read lots of books about cars telling me how to fix a car if they've yet to do it themselves. It's true, you don't have to experience something always firsthand to have knowledge about it, but it sure helps credibility in that regard.

I think JET (and all ESL for that matter) might be better served if expectations weren't placed on the programs to exponentially improve English scores, conversation, etc. As is the case with anything, if students are being forced to learn something, they just memorize it and forget it to pass tests and keep their parents happy. The problem with English language learning (or any language learning) at its root is a lack of complete commitment. When learning Japanese at first, I only had a one hour lesson once a week. I didn't learn much if anything. When I started using Japanese in everyday speech was when it actually stuck.

The same principle goes with English. Japanese students can't just "turn on the English switch" when they take classes and then go about speaking Japanese the other 23 hours of the day. I had a student once who told me he only studied English for 30 minutes a week for three or four years and wondered why his ability and his TOEIC score weren't improving. I told him it doesn't work that way. The best speakers of English I've met engrossed themselves in it. They spoke to their friends in English, watched English movies, had stacks of textbooks, listened to English music, took notes all day, took extra classes, anything English related, they did it. Frankly, there aren't many kids who are going to do that.

JET may introduce students to loving English and other cultures which can later lead to more advanced study. In any case, as kotoko said, some of these rural areas have never even seen a foreigner in person and JET is their only window to that world. Maybe they don't want that window sometimes? I don't know. Like someone said, you shouldn't have to be Matthew Perry for Japanese to have some outside contact with the rest of the world.

Anyway, I'm by no means an expert (or a mechanic) so those are just my thoughts on JET. I say keep it, tweak it, and see where it goes.

[G Cthulhu]

[G Cthulhu]

[robertokun]

[Glenski]

[G Cthulhu]

[G Cthulhu]

[Amarok]

Nobody made anybody do anything. It was kotoko's choice to get offended and stop posting--it's nobody's responsibility to apologize to her because she can't handle the Serious Business that is the internet.