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jesszilla · Joined: 25 Jan 2005 Posts: 35

Someone - I believe it was Glenski - remarked on a previous thread that it would be beneficial for ALTs to learn a bit about the type of training that teachers in the Japanese school system experience. Does anyone have any recommended reading on this topic?

wintersweet · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 8:18 am Post subject:

A few things I've run across recently while doing research for my MATESOL classes:

http://asian-efl-journal.com/pta_may_05_jc.php
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/APEC/ch4.html
http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v9n10.html
http://poza.net/japan/speak.html
http://www.triangle.co.uk/pdf/validate.asp?j=bji&vol=24&issue=3&year=1998&article=jl (PDF)
http://www.teacherresearch.net/tr_hosokawabera.htm
http://kto.co.jp/new/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=19&com_id=20&com_rootid=10&

I hope you find some of these interesting.

I can't vouch for the quality of all of these, mind.

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

abufletcher · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 8:25 am Post subject:

Here's one place to start:

http://www.indiana.edu/~japan/digest5-pfv.htm

But you can also gain a lot of insight in the the preparation of Jpanese public school teachers by looking at the qualifying exam teachers have to take ("kyoinsaiyo-shiken"). There is so much bizarre and archane knowledge there it boggles the mind.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:04 am Post subject:

Nice to see you're getting some replies to your question, Jesszilla. I'll also take a peek at the links that've been posted.

I recall some newbie JTEs (the type with good English, and cool cats and all that, but little idea of classroom management and/or activity design) becoming pretty preoccupied with, and sometimes getting pretty stressed out over, the qualifying exam that abufletcher mentions. It'll therefore be interesting to see exactly what it is that they were sweating about!

jesszilla · Joined: 25 Jan 2005 Posts: 35

thanks for the info, ladies and gents. I've skimmed some of it, and it looks pretty interesting. This will keep me occupied for a few days, but keep 'em coming if you have 'em.

abufletcher · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:41 pm Post subject:

I've skimmed through a good deal of this now and it's very sobering reading. I teach pre-service courses on Second Language Teaching, Materials Development, and Teaching Foreign Language to Children and the greatest difficulty I have (aside from the students' abysmal levels of English) is deconstructing a lifetime of educational indoctrination. Each year I visit middle and high schools to observe students (not necessarily my own) doing their "practice teaching" and it is frustrating indeed. I've tried to prep them in my own way but they end up doing exactly what they are told to do by the usually non-English speaking English teacher. I like to bring a stop watch to time the amount of English spoken/heard and in a 50 minute lesson it often amounts to less that 10 minutes. In one case it was less than 3 minutes of "hearable" English in a 50 minute lesson.

I like to tell my students that I'm not preparing them to be high school English teachers -- I hope they will be EFL revolutionaries. They have to come to HATE the system -- to look for any chance they might have to "bring it down." Those chances will be few and far between.

By the way, I'd love for them to read some of these papers -- but this level of English comprehension is miles above their heads.