A goal of this website is to provide open source information for ALTs to read and grow professionally from. Authors are being contacted for permission to put their articles here.
They'll be updated as and when. If there are any preferences, or interesting papers you've come across email them over ([email protected]) and they'll be put here.
They'll be updated as and when. If there are any preferences, or interesting papers you've come across email them over ([email protected]) and they'll be put here.
2020 ReformsDo you know that some big changes to English education in Japan are coming up? There is a lot of discussion about the 2020 reforms. This section is dedicated to inform you about what is coming up, the changes and teachers' views:
The need for effective English teachers by Walt Gardner in the Japan Times September 10 2016 is an excellent piece on the need for improved teaching skills. In the Asahi Shimbum, Yukihito Takahama on August 2nd 2016: English set to become a school subject for 5th and 6th graders Another one from The Japan Times on December 31st 2013 by Masaaki Kameda about views towards the reforms. As all OECD countries prepare their learners for the global economy by nurturing transferable skills, such as team work and critical thinking, Japan is being left behind. This article in The Japan Times by Amy Chavez discusses just that, in reference to the 2020 changes: Teachers must nurture critical thinking, confidence in English for a shot at 2020 goals Japanese education system
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SCoRE CorpusOur learners are expected to learn a very large number or words in schools (see information in the 'Vocabulary' module for how many). Teachers (and researchers) us a Corpus (a large collection of words) to teach learners the most useful words. Dr Kiyomi Chujo from Nihon University has kindly permitted us to use the SCoRE corpus - designed for low level learners. Training on how to use a corpus is coming soon. Please email in with any queries.
http://www.score-corpus.org/en/ JALT 2016 ALTTO PresentationHere is the presentation about ALTTO from the 2016 JALT conference.
Questionnaire responses from 2015From December 2014 to February 2015 I sent out a questionnaire to ALTs and JTEs around Japan to find out about teaching practices. The responses from teachers are supplied here (minus their personal information).
By themselves they make interesting reading, no matter how long you've been teaching. The paper I wrote from these responses is here: 'Contemporary roles of foreign English teachers in Japanese public secondary schools: An exploratory study'. JTE questionnaire Responses28 teachers responded from prefectures around Japan: Osaka, Tokyo. Fukushima, Niigata, Hyogo, Fukuoka. These teachers taught at all levels of schooling: ES, JHS and HS. Unfortunately there weren't enough responses here to include in my report, so they remain unanalysed. But the views from the JTEs' we work with make insightful reading.
Why did you become an English teacher?
Have you studied English abroad? How many years have you been an English teacher? What did you study at university? Do you have any (other) teaching qualifications? How much did your teacher training prepare you to teach English? How much did your teacher training prepare you to teach English? - Written comments. Do you study English? Do you study English? - Written comments. Do you have any affiliations with educational groups? Do you attend any teaching seminars/workshops? Have you read the Course of Study guidelines? Have you read the Course of Study guidelines - Written comments. What are your goals when teaching English? What methodology do you mainly use? How often do you team-teach on average each week? Do you enjoy team-teaching? Do you enjoy team-teaching - Written comments. Why are ALTs in the classroom? What do you think of the ALT system? Could you improve the ALT system? Do you think ALTs should teach solo (without a JTE)? ALT questionnaire responses171 ALTs responded from 47 prefectures around Japan. These teachers taught at all levels of schooling: ES, JHS and HS.
Why did you become an ALT?
How many years have you been an ALT? What was your undergraduate degree? Do you have any teaching qualifications? Do you have any affiliations with educational groups? Do you go to any pedagogical meetings, conferences, workshops? Have you read MEXT's course of studies? (chart) Have you read MEXT's course of studies? (written) What are you main goals when teaching? What methodology do you mainly use? How often do you team teach on average each week? (chart) How often do you team teach on average each week? (written) Do you enjoy team teaching? (chart) Do you enjoy team teaching? (written) What do you do in the classroom? Why are ALTs in the classroom? Are you treated as an equal teacher? What problems do you regularly face? What do you think of the ALT system? Could you improve the ALT system? How? How do you feel about being an assistant? |
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