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1. An Introduction to Teaching in Junior High Schools.
The purpose of these pages is to give you, the ALT, the tools you need to help you get the most out of your time teaching English in Japan. This may be your first time teaching in Japan, you may have previous experience as an ALT or you may be coming from working at an English Conversation School (Eikaiwa). Either you way, you will find the information found in these pages to be invaluable. As a new ALT or an experienced Eikaiwa teacher, it’s important to understand the different skill set needed for teaching large classes in a Japanese public or private junior high (and of course elementary or senior high) school.
The Students
In Eikaiwa schools, students usually come once or twice a week, and they go to the school with the specific goal of improving or maintaining their English ability. Much of the lesson is dedicated to language practice and there are a lot more opportunities for one-on-one time with the teacher. Classes are smaller, so it’s also easier for the teacher to monitor the activities and also change or modify the lesson plan on the go.
In junior high schools, however, especially given the larger class sizes and differences in motivation and levels within each class, we are presented with a very different, but in some ways, more exciting teaching environment. Students generally study English around 5 times a week with the Japanese English teacher (JET) and once a week with the native English teacher (NET). The NET’s lesson may or may not be a team teaching lesson, but especially in private schools, the NET is given more of the responsibility for planning. The goals of the JET’s and NET’s lessons are also quite different. In Japan, most entrance exams for schools and universities focus on grammar, vocabulary, listening and reading with higher level tests having a section for sentence and paragraph writing. There is often little attention given to testing speaking ability. Because of this, students and teachers must put a lot of their focus on preparing students to succeed in these areas. For the NET’s lesson, the focus is on oral communication and building more confidence with speaking English.
The two different focuses require a different approach. The motivations and goals of the JET’s lessons are clear and students focus a lot on grammar and accuracy. In contrast, much less time is spent on oral communication. As a result, many students can understand basic texts and write reasonable sentences, however are less capable of communication to the same level verbally. In oral communication classes, there is often a need to build in the motivation for using English. Of course, this is where the need for focused and engaging lesson planning comes in. Part of the fun of teaching in junior high schools is creating fun and effective lessons that alongside helping improve students’ confidence speaking English, can help motivate students to see how English can be an important and interesting part of their education.
How Does This Affect Teaching in JHS/HS?
Students usually study in a “This is the question, this is the answer” fashion. This provides students with the opportunity to study more easily for exams showing a “They who put in the most work get the best grades!” relationship. There are those students with natural ability and those who study all possible questions and answers as hard as possible. Come results day, it’s difficult to tell the two apart. Especially in Japan, a lot of weight is placed on the students’ test grades, and with passing university entrance exams being the major goal of most students, focus has to be placed on this kind of study. Students often have to study grammar and vocabulary far above what they can actually produce in written or oral form – because this is what they are going to be tested on.
Real oral communication doesn’t work this way. There are many different ways to answer any one question. The question “How are you?” for instance, has many possible answers but you often hear a chorus of “I’m fine thank you, and you?” If students are unsure of the perfect response to a question, you often hear no answer at all. Giving no answer is sometimes considered better than giving the wrong one for students in Japan. Again, this can be as a result of the type of testing in Japan, a lot of focus in the regular English class is on accuracy. In the oral communication, focusing on accuracy is also important, but so is getting students comfortable with making small mistakes – a few key words strung together with still provide more information than nothing at all.
Knowing this prior to planning and teaching your lessons is of course invaluable.
Incorporating This Into The Lesson Plan
Being aware of your students’ motivations, and what they are doing in their other classes (English or otherwise), can of course be of great use when it comes to planning your lessons.
A teacher should ask themselves, “What are the major goals of this class?” Well one of the things we should focus on is making English accessible to our students. We want to create a positive image of English, so that even the lowest level students can still walk away thinking – English is fun, maybe I can do this. For me personally, if I get 5 students who didn’t like English at the beginning of the year to start enjoying the class and speaking even a little English, this is more gratifying than having conversations with already motivated students. For me, I feel I have given those 5 students a new ‘life skill‘ that will stay with them long after graduation.
Given the type of motivation and goals explained above, it is important to make your lesson targets as focused as possible. A focused target means the material will be more accessible to all the students.
Students will be able to…(SWBAT)
The easiest way to do this is to think in terms of, “by the end of this class, students will be able to…”(SWBAT). Depending on the level of the class, think in terms of what you are trying to get the students to achieve and understand.
For example:
A target like ‘SWBAT use the passive voice.’ would not work. The topic of passive voice and the different variations in language are huge.
Instead, try ‘SWBAT change SVO sentences to O (be) V(past participle) by S’,
e.g. The Beatles sang ‘Let it be’.
⇓(sing sang sung)
‘Let it be’ was sung by the Beatles.
(O) (be) (V) by (S)
This will focus the target and allow you to give the students work at the end which they can complete that will check their understanding.
Limiting the number of verbs used from around 6 to 8 is also a good idea. Keeping it simple and focused like this will gradually build the students’ confidence. In following lessons, you could use the above for review and then expand the target from using ‘by ___’ to using ‘from’/‘with’/‘of ___’ etc, (e.g. SWBAT describe objects using “it’s made by/with/of/for…”
All this can be summed up with FAB
Easy to remember! Lessons should be:
The more students can and want to use English the better they become, the better they become the more motivation they have, the more motivation they have the more they will speak, and on and on the cycle goes.
IN SHORT
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Focus your targets
Keep it accessible
HAVE FUN
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Good and Bad Lesson Targets
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