Job Discussion Forums

[BigZen]

Hi,

I would like to get the opinion from other teachers out there about the importance of published work.

1. If you have written something and had it published, do you believe it has made you a better teacher?

2. Do you think that Japanese language proficiency is more valuable as a teacher in the classroom than published work? I know Japanese universities require at least 3 pieces of published work, but from my experience teaching at a small private university in Japan, none of my colleagues met this requirement.

The reason I ask these questions is that out of my 15 years of teaching in the Middle east, South Korea and Japan, I have met very few teachers who have published work. Some former colleagues have told me the reason they have not done so is that "everything to be said of importance has already been written." Others have told me they find many articles in JALT pulications, TESOL Quarterly, or various on-line sites "too academic and not relevant to work in the classroom."

Thank You,

BigZen

[Glenski]

1. If you have written something and had it published, do you believe it has made you a better teacher?

Yes and no. Depends on what was written and how it was applied.

2. Do you think that Japanese language proficiency is more valuable as a teacher in the classroom than published work?Key phrase here is "in the classroom". Again I have to say it depends on how you apply what you wrote.

Besides, you really shouldn't use all that much Japanese in the class anyway.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

It's about appearances. That's why they want people to have published.

Does it make you a better teacher? No. That's why it isn't required in other countries, including the inner circle English ones.

Students enter university / college in this country having taken a minimum of six years of English in JHS and SHS. Almost all of it was grammar translation, and the textbook was the syllabus. Many Japanese students are pretty similar to false beginners in terms of their level when compared with other countries when they enter university. But it would be very, very difficult to change the way English is taught in high schools because of basic expectations of the roles of students and teachers in this country.

Does Japanese language make you a better teacher of English? Only in as far as you may understand your students better- and it might make some of the English they produce semi-comprehensible. The requirement for Japanese language is often for things outside of actually teaching English- like understanding meetings that are in Japanese (even when they are English faculty meetings that are for both foreigners and Japanese people).

As a local, you have to be fluent in a foreign language in order to teach it in schools in most countries (Canadians have to be fluent in German as well as have an undergraduate degree in it and a B.ed specifically in teaching it to the target audience in order to teach German in Canada). You don't even have to have majored in English to be an English teacher as a Japanese person in Japan.

And also, the big difficulty in Japan is ENTERING university. Once you're in, you're in. Education is about passing the test for the next level. In other countries university study itself is the hardest level. This makes appearances all the more important for universities here.

[Cool Teacher]

[BigZen]

Hi Glenski & GambateBingBangBOOM,

Thanks for your replies. I was also hoping to get your own personal experiences about the number of people you've met in this field who have published work. As I wrote before, I have met over the course of my 15 years teaching only about 5-6 people who have published anything.

BZ

[Glenski]

In high school practically nobody I knew was published.

In university, practically everyone.