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omarr380
Joined: 30 Apr 2004
Posts: 16
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 Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 7:51 am Post subject: Do professionals feel ALTs bring down the profession? |
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Hello. I am currently an ALT in Japan (not with JET, unfortunately) and I have gotten the impression that some people who consider themselves professionals dislike ALTs. If this is true, I honestly don't understand why. Yes, I am a clown. Yes, my job is just for show and to get Japanese youths used to seeing non-Japanese. I am doing everything they essentially told me to do which is show up and smile. In the interview, I even said I DO NOT plan to be a career teacher. My intention was and still is to study Japanese. I even hear that the JET program, more prestigious than any eikawa, prefers people with out teaching credentials or real teaching aspirations. Pardon me for asking this question, but I as an ALT I have plenty of time to think about these things.
Do any professionals feel I am doing a bringing the job down?
Thank you. |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 10:04 am Post subject: Another opinion |
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Coming from another ALT (that's not on the JET program) let me answer your question this way: It's irrelevant which "program" you are on -- whether it's ECC, JET, another company, or altogether a different/independent contract.... I don't think you necessarily "bring the job down" by not wanting to devote your lifetime career to teaching, or to deny that you are there, in part, to entertain the students...
What DOES bring down the jobs are people who don't take their job seriously -- and by seriously I mean exhibitng a certain level of professionalism that might be expected no matter what profession or job you ultimately choose.
You may be doing future ALTs who will ultimately take your place a disservice if you:
- arrive at work late
- leave early
- come inappropriately dressed
- Are rude / ignorant / beligerant
- don"t make an effort
- Blatantly show disregard for your work / workplace
- Show disregard for other teachers for whom it IS a lifetime career choice
- Disrespect the students
- ONLY play uneducational games & don't even try to teach anything
- Waste the students' time (especially in grades 9 & 12 around exam time)
- Make it obvious to people that this is not your career choice
- Only "show up and smile"
- Don't care whether your students learn something or not
- Obviously spend lesson planning time fooling around
- Doing personal stuff at work (some schools don't mind or even encourage things like studying Japanese, but some don't. Either way, shopping on EBay is likely to cause some friction).
- Only putting in minimal/no effort into your lesson plans and lessons
If any of these describe you, then it may be a good idea to rethink your role... If all what it is, is a money train and you're getting on board, then I think it IS doing a disservice both to co-workers and students.
I can say, that the above list definitely relates to the work I'm doing now. Because of my predecessors, there are many pre-conceived notions as to what and how an ALT will do. For instance, I had many JTEs plan my lessons for me, because the previous ALT didn't do any lesson planning. I'm told I must report to the vice-principal prior to leaving the school, because my predecessors had a habit of leaving early. Administrators get edgy whenever I use the computer (even when it's obvious I'm writing a lesson plan or designing a handout for the students) because my predecessors surfed the Internet all day. Etc...etc...
So in essence, just bear in mind that even though you may not feel called to teaching and it may be just a temporary way to make money for you, the person or people who come after you may be faced with a lot more hurdles as a reflection of your performance now. Whatever you do, do it knowing that people are watching, making mental notes, and evaluating not only you as a person, but the ALT position in general.
I hope that helps clarify a little.
JD
Last edited by JimDunlop2 on Thu Jul 01, 2004 2:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 12:00 pm Post subject: Re: Do professionals feel ALTs bring down the profession? |
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| omarr380 wrote: |
Hello. I am currently an ALT in Japan (not with JET, unfortunately) and I have gotten the impression that some people who consider themselves professionals dislike ALTs. If this is true, I honestly don't understand why. Yes, I am a clown. Yes, my job is just for show and to get Japanese youths used to seeing non-Japanese. I am doing everything they essentially told me to do which is show up and smile. In the interview, I even said I DO NOT plan to be a career teacher. My intention was and still is to study Japanese. I even hear that the JET program, more prestigious than any eikawa, prefers people with out teaching credentials or real teaching aspirations. Pardon me for asking this question, but I as an ALT I have plenty of time to think about these things.
Thank you. |
Hi, if I could add my two cents worth:
I have recently been doing research on the teaching of English in elementary schools and that has also included speaking to elementary and high school japanese teachers regarding ALTs and team teaching.
I have also read some articles which deal with Japanese teachers attitudes to ALTs and their teaching and personal attitudes.
My conclusion is that in misguided way- the CLAIR and JET people do not want a qualified and experienced person to take over the class, show up the Japanese english teacher and start rewriting the curriculum. this is why they bring in the gaijin once a month for some games and show them off to the class. What they are doing is not really teaching, and students will not learn very much if they only see a teacher once every six weeks, or once a week for that matter, any less than that teacher will have an impact on individual students. You really need to be in the class with them them several times a week, an hour a day to make a difference.
I might also add that you may laugh at the JTEs English ability and lack of speaking skills, but the man or woman has a university degree, a teaching diploma from their university, months or years of practical teaching experience. Some have been teaching since before you were born, and here comes this fresh faced kid just off the boat, knows nothing about language teaching and acquisition, nothing about Japanese students, nothing about education, no apparent interest in teaching except feeding at the public trough every payday and milking the program for every yen they can get. teachers are busy people and they have to baby sit these clueless foreigners who call themselves JETs or ALTs, and have not a day of education or teahcing experience to their name before they enter a classroom. Japanese JTEs are now getting fed up with the lack of teaching skill, lack of interest in teaching (or anything else apart from their own wellbeing) or in their students.
It depends on the ALT of course, but i think a majority of the Japanese see ALTs teaching as amateur, not well thought out and just based on playing silly games without much thought of what they are doing. ALTs and are not that well paid I understand and professional curiousity and motivation may be a problem. I think that not only foreign teaching professionals see ALTs as a bit of a joke, but the Japanese teachers as well due to lack of maturity, lack of experience and this sense that ALTs and JETs see the whole thing as an extended paid vacation and it shows in their teaching, when they are put in a class with a trained experienced professional. |
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denise
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 3419
Location: finally home-ish
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| Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 12:21 pm Post subject: |
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I consider myself to be a "professional", as this is the career path that I have chosen. (It's more than just a job for me.)
I agree whole-heartedly with everything that Jim Dunlop said. As long as you take yourself seriously while you are in the classroom, what you do outside of it & your motivation for being here in the first place are your own business. Coming here to learn the language does not mean that you cannot also be a talented and caring teacher.
I'd be willing to bet that few of the lifers out there knew from the beginning that it'd become permanent for them. We all had different reasons for getting into this; some of us just decided to stick around...
d |
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grampus
Joined: 14 Mar 2003
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 2:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Don't hate the player, hate the game! |
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Mike L.
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 519
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| Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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I'd say the JTE's, a majority of them, and Monbusho's crap curriculum bring down the profession more than anything!
I teach some company classes minus the two and I'll tell it's smooth sailing!
The ALTs and JET are only byproducts of these two and other "defective" phenomenon mentioned above! |
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hamel
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 95
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| Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2004 6:54 am Post subject: |
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message deleted
Last edited by hamel on Fri Jul 23, 2004 7:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 4:30 am Post subject: |
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Paulh wrote
| Quote: |
| the CLAIR and JET people do not want a qualified and experienced person to take over the class |
It appears that CLAIR and JET prefer non-teachers. I was a JET after yeras of ELT work and training. I've met many other professional teachers who also went the JET route. What we found was that the Japanese teachers expected an unqualified person and treated us as such until we could prove through preparation and performance that we were professionals. It was a slow go for many of us because our predecessors were not education professionals, and had set the pace.
I think that's where the negative perception of the average ALT starts. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 11:54 am Post subject: |
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| Mike L. wrote: |
I'd say the JTE's, a majority of them, and Monbusho's crap curriculum bring down the profession more than anything!
I teach some company classes minus the two and I'll tell it's smooth sailing!
The ALTs and JET are only byproducts of these two and other "defective" phenomenon mentioned above! |
Mike, this may be stating the obvious, and Im not making excuses for it, but the Monbusho are not language teachers and they have never taught English before. Most bureaucrats have no idea how young people learn languages and how to teach using communicative methods.
From what i am seeing in the elementary schools, is they are telling teachers they have to teach English, throwing non-English speaking teachers into a classroom, expecting them to teach lessons like turning on a light, and making them sink or swim in the process. Add to the mix who treats ALT or JET like a part time job and has no idea how to plan or design a curriculum and you have a recipe for disaster.
Monbusho does not do anything in the way of a needs analysis to find out what teachers need or think is important. Many of the JETs or ALTs dont really know either. They know how to 'teach English' (kind of) but have little idea on how to choose materials, decide the right mix of lessons, suitable for certain levels etc.
I just wonder if the Monbusho's curriculum is 'crap' (and Im not saying its not) who are you suggesting can do better, and how would you introduce such a curriculum into 10,000 high schools around the country? Just slapping a westernised ESL curriculum from the US on a Japanese classroom may also do more harm than good. |
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guest of Japan
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 1601
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| I just wonder if the Monbusho's curriculum is 'crap' (and Im not saying its not) who are you suggesting can do better, and how would you introduce such a curriculum into 10,000 high schools around the country? Just slapping a westernised ESL curriculum from the US on a Japanese classroom may also do more harm than good. |
I'll give the simple million dollar answer. Bureaucrats should stay out of policy design and instead deal with the problems of implementation. Educators should be the ones who design curricula. These include teachers, principals, and university professors as well as testing agencies. I'm not saying just let everyone do as they please. I'm saying that there should far more interaction between the Monboshu and the schools. |
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Mike L.
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 519
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 2:36 am Post subject: |
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Guest of Japan: You've hit the nail right on the head!
Japan's government want to be "guiding hand" like Singapore's but they simply don't have anywhere near the ability or level of co-operation from the populace.
Whether it's paving rivers, bailing out dead companies and interfering in the economy they think they can do it all but mostly what they have done is nearly bankrupt the country!
Business is for businesses!
The state of public finance and the fact that people are increasingly not paying their health or pension premiums is a vote of non-confidence says as much..
Monbusho's English language curriculum and the realites pointed out by previous posters are a perfect example of this failed bureacratic system!
That's why we have people who've never taught English, often can't speak a word of it and often being completely ignorant of ELT making the decisions!! |
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joncharles
Joined: 09 Apr 2004
Posts: 132
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Most bureaucrats have no idea how young people learn languages and how to teach using communicative methods.
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Paul, I used to have several teachers as students and many of them told me they want to have more interactive classes... not only in English, but other subjects as well. The problem is exactly what you mentioned. The bureaucrats get stuck on a system and they can't let go.. they see it as part of the culture and changing the curriculum would be detrimental to Japanese society. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 2:45 am Post subject: |
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I remember reading a while ago in the Monbusho prescription that they wanted teachers to teach students how to be more creative and to learn to think independently and 'outside the box'. If teachers have not been brought up that way through high school to question authority or be the nail that sticks out its very hard for teachers to instil that in their students.
Monbusho is all about control, top-down prescriptivism, except when it comes to learning English where they hand the reins to the teachers. They want students to be able to speak and converse in English and get used to foreigners, but they dont want students to 'think' like foreigners as that would makew them appear 'un-Japanese' and to some extent uncontrollable as they would then have minds of their own. Part of elementary school education e.g. 'Moral education' is about teaching young people how to conform, and behave as Japanese and teach them how to function in Japanese society. Ministry bureaucrats dont know any other way. |
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