Do Japanese Elementary Schools Need More English?
Saw this article in the Asahi newspaper online yesterday. Basically, the government is leaning towards making English an official subject (it isn’t one at the moment, just an extra set of activities), which would mean more classes, and lowering the age at which students start learning English.
Great. This is yet another good idea that is going to be executed horribly.
You know what I would like to see in elementary school.
You know that Japan’s English teachers are on the whole undertrained and not proficient in English (only 20% of JHS and 35% of SHS English teachers have reasonable English qualifications).
I think there should be English classes in elementary school, but they need to be well-planned and implemented by teachers who know how to teach and are proficient in English. Sadly I don’t think we’re going to see either of those…
Am I being too pessimistic?
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by sendaiben
5 comments
Student Reactions to Extensive Reading (Pan-SIG 2013)
I was at the Pan-SIG conference this weekend, held in Nagoya (the excellent Nanzan University hosted the event). This is the video of my presentation (a little shorter than usual):
Thanks to everyone who attended.
JALT Pan-SIG 2013 @ Nanzan University in Nagoya: May 18-19
I’ll be attending and presenting at one of my favourite conferences, the JALT Pan-SIG, this weekend.
I love the pan-SIG because it is a gathering of teachers that belong to special-interest groups (the SIGs) that focus on things they are passionate about. The quality of the presentations and interactions at pan-SIG is always very high, and I always come away with new information, techniques, and memories.
I’ll be presenting on Saturday at 14:30, on student reactions to extensive reading classes.
Hope to see a lot of you there!
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by sendaiben
2 comments
Graded Reader Word Counts
Right, this is the third and final post (for now) about graded readers and word counts. From now on, I will be posting about this issue only at the Facebook page I have set up to co-ordinate the various proposed campaigns.
http://www.facebook.com/GradedReaderWordCounts
I think as well as the boycott, it would be useful to encourage teachers to write to publishers directly, as well as create some educational resources aimed at informing publishers about the issue.
Thanks for all the support and suggestions so far, and hopefully see you on Facebook!
blogging expectations extensive reading graded readers materials readers school management
by sendaiben
12 comments
Let’s boycott graded readers that don’t print/publish word counts
Right, I have had enough.
Our graded reader program uses word counts to track student progress. I believe this is superior to using pages or books or time. It makes it easy to compare students across levels, and to standardize goals and progress.
Every year, I spend days searching for word counts, writing them in books, putting them on our website, and even counting words by hand because the publisher refuses to release the word counts for the book (why, Black Cat, why?).
Well, I’m not going to do that any more. I understand that each publisher is free to make editorial and design decisions, and not printing word counts on books is one of them. However, I am also free to decide which books I buy, and I would like to say publicly here that I will no longer be ordering graded readers that do not have word counts printed clearly on them. I have an unlimited budget here at Tohoku University, and a considerable one at Cambridge English, and from now on I will be using those funds exclusively to buy readers from publishers that listen to teachers when they say that they need the word counts on the books.
I would like to invite other teachers that use extensive reading and graded readers to join me. Please contact your sales rep/book distributor and let them know that you care about this issue. I’m guessing that we will see some changes fairly quickly if enough people get involved.
Are you with me? 😉
