team-teaching with native English teacher
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
team-teaching with native English teacher
I am now researching on collaborative English teaching with native speakers. In Japan, it is quite normal to have an assistant language teacher in each language class. I would like to compare this program in Japan to some other contries such as Hong Kong. Does anyone have an experience of teaching as NET in Hong Kong? If you do, please let me know. I woud like to figure out what is beneficial or what is problematic factor and what team-teaching should be like.
-
Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
We did this in Mongolia and Greenland as well. The native speaking teacher took grammar, reading and writing and we took "conversation". I found that it more successful if we actually took the classes at different times or at least split the class so the assistant taught at one end of the classroom and I taught at the other end. We followed the same curriculum.
In Mongolia we had the Peace Corps curriculum that was quite culturally sensitive and used local resources and vocabulary. Greenland used Dannish resources and wasn't quite as successful in my opinon although it did prepare the better students for what they would be facing in further education.
I found that if an assistant teacher was in the room, the student waited for the assistant to explain difficult instructions or to help them explain to me, looking for vocabulary from the assistant and so on. If we were left alone, I adapted more quickly from seeing their confusion and we had to struggle with the rest. Whenever, they were too frustrated I would ask them to tell me something in their own language first and then ask them if I was stupid because I didn't understand. They never seem to think the teacher is stupid so then they didn't mind trying something in English.
Of course, I had more discipline problems when I was on my own, especially with students who didn't see that they would ever have to speak English. They often tried to sleep or talked to their friends or played on their cell phones and on and on. I always addressed the problems immediately but some students are persistent and it often ended up in the vice principals office where we negotiated their presence in the classroom.
I think that a great deal of the problems was my style of teaching which was so different from their normal classrooms as I played games, cooked, went for walks, and they never knew what was coming up. Their teachers provided a safe, regular, stable experience, usually with text books. A few students couldn't cope with the unexpected but most came to expect the unexpected and look forward to it.
I had the advantage of teaching the same lesson all day long starting with the younger children and working up to the more advanced students and by the end of the day, my lesson usually was pretty successful as I had worked out all the kinks, refined by previous students.
In Mongolia we had the Peace Corps curriculum that was quite culturally sensitive and used local resources and vocabulary. Greenland used Dannish resources and wasn't quite as successful in my opinon although it did prepare the better students for what they would be facing in further education.
I found that if an assistant teacher was in the room, the student waited for the assistant to explain difficult instructions or to help them explain to me, looking for vocabulary from the assistant and so on. If we were left alone, I adapted more quickly from seeing their confusion and we had to struggle with the rest. Whenever, they were too frustrated I would ask them to tell me something in their own language first and then ask them if I was stupid because I didn't understand. They never seem to think the teacher is stupid so then they didn't mind trying something in English.
Of course, I had more discipline problems when I was on my own, especially with students who didn't see that they would ever have to speak English. They often tried to sleep or talked to their friends or played on their cell phones and on and on. I always addressed the problems immediately but some students are persistent and it often ended up in the vice principals office where we negotiated their presence in the classroom.
I think that a great deal of the problems was my style of teaching which was so different from their normal classrooms as I played games, cooked, went for walks, and they never knew what was coming up. Their teachers provided a safe, regular, stable experience, usually with text books. A few students couldn't cope with the unexpected but most came to expect the unexpected and look forward to it.
I had the advantage of teaching the same lesson all day long starting with the younger children and working up to the more advanced students and by the end of the day, my lesson usually was pretty successful as I had worked out all the kinks, refined by previous students.
team teaching in state socondary school
Thank you for your comment, Sally. I didn't know that in Mongolia and Greenland, team-teaching with native speaker of English is so popular.
However, I just wondered if it is organized by state school or private institution? As far as as I know, Japan and Hong Kong have same sort of programs which are called JET and NET. In those two countries, assisntant language teachers(ALT) from English-speaking countries have to be qualified. For example, Japan accept more than 6000 ALTs a year on JET program.
I need to compare more than 2 different contexts which are engaged in collaborative language teaching for my research. If anyone has an experience of team-teaching as an assistant or native teacher, I would like to know what are the difficulties and how you felt in teaching. Will be waiting for your reply.
However, I just wondered if it is organized by state school or private institution? As far as as I know, Japan and Hong Kong have same sort of programs which are called JET and NET. In those two countries, assisntant language teachers(ALT) from English-speaking countries have to be qualified. For example, Japan accept more than 6000 ALTs a year on JET program.
I need to compare more than 2 different contexts which are engaged in collaborative language teaching for my research. If anyone has an experience of team-teaching as an assistant or native teacher, I would like to know what are the difficulties and how you felt in teaching. Will be waiting for your reply.
Re: team teaching in state socondary school
Kazuko wrote: As far as as I know, Japan and Hong Kong have same sort of programs which are called JET and NET. In those two countries, assisntant language teachers(ALT) from English-speaking countries have to be qualified. For example, Japan accept more than 6000 ALTs a year on JET program.
I need to compare more than 2 different contexts which are engaged in collaborative language teaching for my research. If anyone has an experience of team-teaching as an assistant or native teacher, I would like to know what are the difficulties and how you felt in teaching. Will be waiting for your reply.
JETs need to have a university degree, in anything at all, and a passport from an English speaking country in which they can interview. That's all. That's not qualified.
There's also the EPIK program in Korea, if you haven't heard of it.