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Otaku
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Karma: 53 |  | ES English - 'English Notebook'
« Thread Started on Mar 19, 2008, 9:20am » | |
The favorite part of this article is a teacher saying that if less than 90% of the students don't like English classes, he considers it a failure. I wonder the percentage of other subjects are...
Also, 'English' isn't part of the licensing procedure for ES teachers. So the question is, who are the most qualified to help make English a weekly taught class, ALTs (who usually have the most experience) or HRTs (who just had a huge conference recently to plan for the new classes)?
Teachers prepare for new curriculum
Midori Matsuzawa Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer (Feb. 21, 2008)
Under current national curriculum regulations, primary schools may offer English lessons at their discretion as part of a general studies class, but the upcoming revision of the curriculum, whose draft was unveiled last week, makes English compulsory for fifth- and sixth-year students--about one class hour per week.
When Zenkoku Shogakko Eigo-Katsudo Jissen Kenkyukai, a Kyoto-based nationwide body consisting mainly of primary school teachers sharing their English lesson techniques, held its fourth annual convention on Jan. 25-26 in Omuta, more than 1,300 teachers and educators attended from all over the nation--apparently in response to the upcoming curriculum change.
At primary schools, homeroom teachers teach all the subjects to the students for whom they are responsible. However, primary school teachers do not get training in English teaching when acquiring their teaching licenses. For this reason, the question of who should offer such lessons has become a major issue.
The theme of the latest convention was how homeroom teachers can lead English lessons, which has been the main focus for the Omuta Municipal Board of Education since it introduced English education to all of its 24 (now 23) public schools in the 2000 school year.
On the first day, three of the schools opened their classes to visitors for observation. None of the classes took a team-teaching approach with native-speaking instructors.
Thanks to a local computer network system connecting public institutions in the city, classes are often held via a video hookup between different schools. On that particular day, such a class was demonstrated between fifth-year students at Meiji Primary School and third-years at neighboring Nakatomo Primary School.
Divided into groups of four or five, the fifth-year students offered "Who am I?" quizzes to their younger fellows, whose images were shown on the big screen in front of them.
In their previous lessons, each group had made their own hints to be presented in three stages. For example, those made by one group began, "I'm an animal. I'm brown." Then, "I'm strong. I'm big." And finally, "I like fish." (The answer was "bear.")
The older students also had decided on what gestures to use in their presentation.
Homeroom teacher Kyoko Kawamura said the aim of giving quizzes via a video hookup was to encourage her students to consider those they were speaking to more carefully than they might in face-to-face communication.
"Such a setting requires them to be more careful about gestures and their speed of speaking in consideration of those on the other side of the machines--it would be difficult to make themselves understood just through language," she stressed. "All the more, because my students are speaking to younger children, they have to exercise much greater care for their fellows, such as [thinking carefully about which] words to use in their hints."
To encourage homeroom teachers to offer English lessons on their own, the Omuta Municipal Board of Education has not only been offering them various training programs, but has also been developing a variety of resources, which include online materials available via the network system. These online resources provide sample lesson plans and vocabulary lists or instructions frequently used in the classroom--all of them accompanied by video images to set the scene for each of the lessons or demonstrate the pronunciation of the expressions.
Prof. Ken Oshiro of the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa Prefecture, one of the invited experts at the convention, pointed out that the board's leadership has demonstrated the importance and effectiveness of local government support for homeroom teachers to take the lead in English lessons.
Observing the classes held at Meiji Primary School, Oshiro praised the school for having "patterned" the basic flow of a standard lesson--beginning with greeting and a warmup such as a review of the previous lesson, then checking the day's goal, enjoying a main activity and summing up the lesson before ending with a singalong and farewells.
"I've found this approach really effective for homeroom teachers to prepare for lessons during their hectic days, with limited time available," the professor said. "As long as a certain format has been set, they just take advantage of it, all adding their own ideas."
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Don't teach too much
On the second day of the conference, some public schools in western Japan reported on their respective teaching approaches at three separate meetings.
One of them featured speakers from three schools that have been offering English lessons for at least three years. Their reports revealed that two of them shared a similar problem. Namely, an increasing number of their students tended to lose interests on a year-on-year basis.
Of the two, Katashima Primary School in Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture, introduced English in the 2000 school year. The percentage of the students who said they liked their English lessons--initially near 100 percent--hit its lowest record three years later, at 83 percent.
Since then, the school has been working on countermeasures, such as setting evaluation standards to look better at the students' reactions during lessons and trying to make the setting of activities as authentic as possible to motivate them.
Apparently thanks to such efforts, the satisfaction rating gradually improved, recovering to 91 percent in the 2006 school year.
"If as many as 10 percent of students per class say they don't like their English lessons, I'd call them [the classes] unsuccessful," said Prof. Osamu Kageura of Kagoshima Immaculate Heart University in Kagoshima Prefecture, speaking as an adviser at this particular session.
He presented three points for reviewing such "unsuccessful" lessons--featured words and expressions, teaching methods and contents of activities.
Having one class hour of lessons per week will mean that fifth- and sixth-graders will have a total of just 70 lessons for the whole two years. Such scant periods limits what is taught, Kageura stressed.
"I personally believe the number of vocabulary items at the primary school stage should be no more than 200--a very basic level," he said.
"Don't teach too much," Kageura stressed to the audience. "I believe the key point in organizing lessons is deciding how to take advantage of a limited vocabulary so that your students ultimately can express themselves."
'Textbook' offers primary schools English guidance
Even before the upcoming revision of the curriculum guidelines, the draft of which was unveiled last week, makes English compulsory for primary school students, nearly 96 percent of the nation's public primary schools already offered some form of English lessons as of the 2006 school year, according to a survey conducted by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry. However, what these schools teach and how often they offer such lessons vary among schools.
"The point of making English compulsory is to draw a minimum line to some extent to redress such wide variance," said Masataka Kan, a senior researcher specializing in English curriculum at the ministry, as he delivered a keynote speech at the latest convention on primary school English organized by Zenkoku Shogakko Eigo-Katsudo Jissen Kenkyukai.
Nonetheless, the upcoming revision will not treat English as a regular subject, which would require numerical evaluations and authorized textbooks subject to the screening system.
The upcoming revision will require primary schools to offer fifth- and sixth-year students at least one class hour of lessons per week. Kan has been involved in producing a "textbook" for such lessons as a guideline on what to study. Its working title is English Notebook. To be completed by the end of March, it will be distributed to students and teachers during the new school year starting April.
The official said English Notebook will feature a "minimum" level of content.
"As a researcher, I've been visiting schools nationwide, including pilot ones," Kan said. "Out of what I've observed, English Notebook will present the most appropriate things that have been done anywhere among these schools, without anything bizarre."
Due to the scant number of lessons that fifth- and sixth-year students will be required to take, Kan urged primary school teachers not to include too much in these lessons. He stressed that the primary school stage should aim at developing communicative competence among children so that it can serve as a foundation for developing command of the language at the middle and high school levels.
"I'd like you to focus on developing an environment in which your students can find English fun so that you can send such children to middle school," Kan said, urging primary school teachers to become aware of linkage to the upper stage as stipulated in the upcoming revision.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20080221TDY14001.htm
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regi2
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« Reply #1 on Mar 19, 2008, 10:58am » | |
Great... Yay!
More useless textbooks!
Hey Otaku, what was the deal with that seminar yuo mentioned? Can you give us a write up of what went on, your feelings bout it etc?
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Otaku
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« Reply #2 on Mar 19, 2008, 11:05am » | |
The seminar I mentioned was from the article. It seemed to be huge with over 1,000 attendees.
"When Zenkoku Shogakko Eigo-Katsudo Jissen Kenkyukai, a Kyoto-based nationwide body consisting mainly of primary school teachers sharing their English lesson techniques, held its fourth annual convention on Jan. 25-26 in Omuta, more than 1,300 teachers and educators attended from all over the nation--apparently in response to the upcoming curriculum change."
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regi2
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« Reply #3 on Mar 19, 2008, 11:26am » | |
ah, ok...
how about the seminar you taught at for ES teachers?
Thats the one I meant
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Otaku
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« Reply #4 on Mar 19, 2008, 12:30pm » | |
There were two seminars.
One seminar was sponsered by the prefectural BOE. I was supposed to teach HRTs English based upon a crappy outlined handed down from the BOE. It featured the mind-numbing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 song, Fruit Baskets and Simon Says. I protested this multiple times with no avail. My plan was to push their outline aside on game day and present a more exciting method of teaching English but I came down with the flu and was told to stay home. Of course, I was forced to take nenkyu instead of byoku because I was too sick to move out of my bed to drive myself to the hospital, which would have been really fun seeing that I was doped up on medicine!
The other seminar was supposed to be a Phonics seminar for ES HRTs but I haven't heard anything back since my supervisor asked me to do it. Just like everything else in this city, things are kinda fickle. People like to talk...just not DO. 
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hellndie
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« Reply #5 on Mar 19, 2008, 12:55pm » | |
How should an English textbook be? What does "useless" textbook means? Seeing how we are teaching ESL in Japan .. hence students dont use English outside schools, or rather, English classes. .. how should English be taught so that it is "useful?"
Teaching Phonics would be the most basic step to start.. but what if the teachers don't know Phonics? As far as I know people from the UK didnt learn Phonics ... so how will they go about teaching in Japan?
I am quite interested in how English is taught in China or Korea (other Asian countries)...
As to byoku... I was sneezing and coughing at school one day to the point that the teachers had to tell me to consider taking a sick day. So the next morning, I decided to take a sick day. .. or rather, nenkyu because we dont get sick days. Anyhow taking nenkyu for being sick was OK except for the part where I was told AFTER I went back to school that I was supposed to go to the doctor and get a note because I was sick and missed school on a day that I was not scheduled to teach at all. Now I am going to skip the whole "headache" parts where I received contradicting stories from the staffs. In conclusion, for this "particular place" taking nenkyu for being sick without a doctor's note means deduction in salary..which is bad seeing how "little" we get paid.
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banzai
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« Reply #6 on Mar 19, 2008, 1:39pm » | |
Hellindie,
let me help you out here and everyone for that matter who is not certain on this topic so that you can explain to your supervisors and colleagues the difference in Byokyu and Nenkyu.
Reading your situation the blood just rushed to my head. 
How presumptuous of them, if they think they can miss-interpret FACTS just because you`re a foreigner and not fluent in their native language, they are very mistaken.
If you take nenkyu because you`re sick YOU DON`T need to get on top of that doctors note.
You would have to get doctor`s note in case you don`t take nenkyuu and with official doctor`s note saying "hey`all this ALT is really sick...bla bla bla" you are legally allowed to take byokyu.
For example:
Your`re sick, you can`t go to work, so you call in and tell them that you`re gonna go and see the doctor, at the end of the check up you kindly ask the doctor for doctor`s note...in Japanese you would say "Shindanshou onegaishimasu.".
After consulting with him for how many days you should stay home and get well, he will write the doctor`s note for all those days. You call back to work, inform them that you`ve got doctor`s note and for how many days (when you`ll be returning to work) and on the first day back you hand it in.
And that`s all there is to it!
I am telling you all this from my personal experience, where I refused to go back to work after being rushed to ER and being on IV for two days, which is what my supervisor expected from me.
When I asked him, should I get doctor`s note for my absence from work, I was advised that I don`t need it, since he was right there with me, and therefore witnessing all my health drama at the time. Than few hours later I was told that I should take nenkyu, if I think I should stay home for another day.
What and who do you think you are? went through my head and also out of my mouth. I was a very pissed off.
Because I was miss-advised regarding byokyu, I ended up calling the doctor`s office and ask him to write me up the doctor`s note and later in the afternoon a friend drove me back to pick it up.
When I got back to work, my school had a written permission kinna form from my supervisor regarding my absence, which was a big shock to me since he is not the doctor and therefore not in a position to issue that kind of permission papers.
I made that clear while handing in the official doctor`s note at my base school, since that is the place where presence, absence and that kinda stuff is taken care of. Since that time I had no problems with it when sick.
I know that every situation is different, but I know one thing, the meaning of "sick leave" and "taking a day off" is the SAME for any working person. Even for Japanese workers.
However, if they choose not taking byokyu when sick, than that`s their choice and they should not force it on everyone else.
Check out your contract and take a good look at the part where it explains the difference between Nenkyu and Byokyu, just to get familiar with your own situation.
Know your rights and stand up for your self!
Where ever you are!
I think that, if Japanese people stayed home when sick and get well, instead of spreding germs to everyone around, there would be much less germs flying around.
Or even place a hand in front of their mouth when sneezing or caughing for that matter.
But that`s a topic for another post.
Hey`all it`s a day off tomorrow...yeaaay!!!!
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banzai
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« Reply #7 on Mar 19, 2008, 2:19pm » | |
On the topic of ES Notebook!
I am so disappointed over the MEXT`s approach to all of this.
I wonder, is it their PRIDE or STUPIDITY not to involve and ask ALT for valuable advice and help, and even if they do, is their PRIDE or STUPIDITY not to implement it.
I would say the second one.
How can you advise elementary school teachers, who have none or minimum experience in teaching English as a second language, to follow the textbook and don`t teach too much.
My advice is DON`T TEACH IT AT ALL.
There is going to be more damage than good from all of this.
I can just imagine "the broken katakana on the square" of the first generation, when they come to JHS.
(In my town there is no ALT of foreigner teaching English in elementary school for about 2 years now.)
I was asked to check some lesson plans a while ago, when all this new curriculum came out.....I will not comment on those....I offered help to the BOE....they didn`t get back to me at all....I really don`t care anymore. THE END!
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hellndie
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« Reply #8 on Mar 19, 2008, 3:54pm » | |
wow Banzai.....
thanks for the byokyu explanation. I had no problems with my old BoE.. just the new company have a lot of questionable so-called policies. Also it was my fault for trusting a staff member I know I shouldn't.
I dont think the problem is only ES teachers who have no experience teaching English. The problem is that "katakana is a substitution for english in japan!" Most Japanese teachers have the tendency to speak Japanese-English (Katakana) to students in class because it is "easier for students to understand English" and therefore thats how students learn "english." Not only ES teachers though... JHS teachers speak in katakana-english too.
I think this whole system needs to start back from ground 0.
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junkdna
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« Reply #9 on Mar 21, 2008, 10:49am » | |
WOW, a note from the doctor. That system was in place when I was a JET in '99, but I haven't heard of it since. I have gotten sick before and not needed a note from my doctor and gotten byokyu no problem. Must depend on the idiot in charge.
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mangakk
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« Reply #10 on Apr 16, 2009, 1:35pm » | |
Mar 21, 2008, 10:49am, junkdna wrote:| WOW, a note from the doctor. That system was in place when I was a JET in '99, but I haven't heard of it since. I have gotten sick before and not needed a note from my doctor and gotten byokyu no problem. Must depend on the idiot in charge. |
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I guess those in JET program do not have much trouble like other employed by the Japanese Haken companies as ALT.
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