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English to be taught at elementary schools


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What, panicking about having to teach kids? No matter what happens the teaching market will continue to exist and job opportunties will remain. Pay conditions and so on are in a permenant slide though. However, like anything else, it depends a lot on what you can do and what conditions you can command.

 

There's still a reasonable crust to be made for sitting on yer chuff and going through the motions, if that's what you want to do. This applies even if you're FOB.

 

You can make a good living out of teaching, but you need the combination of skills, experience and qualifications. Making it is also the operative term here.

 

Some of the people I teach have very advanced English communication skills; yet they still need some kind of input, motivation, challenge, practice, and help. I'm happy to teach any level of student. The advent of English lessons at elementary school will ultimately just help (hopefully) to increase the aggregate skill level of my future students \:\)

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Oh you're talking about the Japanese teachers then? Sorry I don't know much about elementary schools but I think I see your point now. Elementary school teachers have to be 'jacks of all trades' don't they.

 

In that case I'm sure some of them are sweating buckets about the eigo. Some kids who are going to eikiewas may have a step up on them. With any luck they'll treat a foriegn language as a specialist subject. However, in my limited experience with public education in Japan it seems that the sledgehammer is the prefered tool.

Ouch!!! eek.gif lol.gif

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English has already been phased into Elementary schools over 2 years ago, if not more. Its not like this is something new. And, to think that Japanese teach something they have no clue about isnt anything new either. Just look at how many "qualified" English teachers are in this country. I wonder how many of them can string together a comprehensible sentence...

 

Dont even get me started on some of the foreigners who teach English in this country :rolleyes:

 

Like theyre freaking qualified? lol.gif

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Yamakashi:

Dont even get me started on some of the foreigners who teach English in this country :rolleyes:

Like theyre freaking qualified? lol.gif
Oh you mean me don't ya! lol.gif , But you don't have to be qualified! Just as long as you have a degree (real or fake) or the right visa.
If you had to be qualified I think they'd have a hard time finding enough heads to fill the positions.

peterson, we know what you mean but this thread has been done a few times already ;\)
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Where?

 

Hiroshima Ken is one of the most average prefectures for education but they started doing English in Elementary schools back when i was living there. And, Im pretty sure that at that time I read a news letter that went around my school saying that (former) Mombusho had implemented English in Elementary schools across the country... Eventhough I live in Ashiya I dunno what the situation is as I dont teach Elementary school kids.

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Here in Niigata, the only "English" that gets "taught" at elem. school is the ALT visit once every few weeks (how often depending on town and school). There are no real English lessons. I believe that to be the case in most places. I certainly haven't heard of proper English lessons at elementary school around here.

 

What they are talking about is proper regular lessons, taught by the elementary school teachers (ie not just the ALT visits). This is totally new and there's a lot of unease amongst the teachers who will have to do this in a few years. (I have quite a few teacher friends and it is the "hot topic" right now).

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 Quote:
Originally posted by muikabochi:
What they are talking about is proper regular lessons, taught by the elementary school teachers (ie not just the ALT visits). This is totally new and there's a lot of unease amongst the teachers who will have to do this in a few years. (I have quite a few teacher friends and it is the "hot topic" right now).
Yes, Im quite aware of whats being talked about after living here and putting up with stupid English BS in Japan for 7 years.

It could be a new thing for many places - I dont know as I dont live in the Doinaka, just stated my experience and knowledge (limited as it is based on some Hiroshima elementary schools)

Having more "unqualified" teachers teaching English with their shite pronunciation and F'ed up knowledge of English, though they HAVE studied it for at least 6 years, is going to make the situation worse, not to mention stress teachers out more.

Some students, whos teacher actually understands English will benefit;while other students' teachers who dont have a clue wont benefit, will fall behind, and become more frustrated.

My school system starts from kindergarden and goes through university. My 1st year jhs kids who come from our elementary school have a very strong grasp of English compared with other kids in class and have usually studied things that we go through and learn in 1st year jhs. I have some jhs kids who can speak better than my 3rd year hs kids. Now thats F'ed up :rolleyes:

The govt would be better off cutting out money outta the JET program and send "real" teachers to live abroad for a year or so, and then come back and teach... Like JETs are "qualified" confused.gif
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It's alway suprised me how little retraining teachers do here. It's kinda like once you've got your teaching liscense then the learning stops.

I've only been in the private school system, but at the school I was working at the English dept consisted of 7 full time teachers. 2-3 were actually trained English teachers. The others were a PE teacher, a woodshop teacher, and a social studies teacher (and me).

I have no idea how these guys, with no background in English, managed to teach full courses in English. They were given no support or training at all. Just sent into the classroom.

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ha! you guys are talkin' bout me, aren't you?

 

i'm an elementary aet, damn local government realized it had to implement english lessons in classes but didn't know how, so decided one person (hai! watashi desu!) would do for over 20 schools in one city.

 

it's tough.

 

it's currently part of the kids' 'sougo/sougou' (?)study & i go to a different school every day of the month, teaching all levels.

 

i've got a master's but not in teaching, so was terrified when i first began. soon realized that 99% of teachers cannot (will not?) speak any english, and are pretty happy no matter what i do.

 

half the schools want nothing but but games & songs, the other half expect their kids to be fluent after 45 mins. (1 teacher even said, 'next time, no games. i want each child in a pair, speaking a real english conversation', whatever the hell that meant?)

 

i'm supposedly an AET but NEVER have i been an assistant, the teachers usually use the lesson to do their own stuff (even occasionally go to the staffroom) or they just play along with whatever i do.

 

the worst part? when the teachers refuse to speak english, saying 'no no, i hate english! eigo nigate! nigate!' etc, which must totally screw up the kids & the way they feel about studying english.

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I watched a lesson at my son's school where the lovely 'Louise-sensei' ran a class for some 25 kids, with minimal help from two Japanese teachers. She did a superb job of keeping the children entertained, while introducing a bit of English comprehension and speaking. The Japanese teachers joined in, but one of them needed a good slapping for their (I think) deliberately bad pronunciation.

 

Louise-sensei nearly had a heart attack when I, another gaijin, walked into the classroom and introduced myself. She got even more flustered when I said, "I'm team-teaching with you today ... Why so surprised? ... Didn't anybody tell you?" A joke like that would only really work because for AETs a situation like that could quite plausibly occur.

 

I think some AETs and some Japanese teachers make a really big effort, but that is completely undermined by the total lack of standards, guidelines, and support, as well as by the sheer infrequency of the lessons. I have no doubt that this will continue to be the case, even if the frequency increases.

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ocean11 -any plans to hit nagano? i'll try to be prepared.

 

i asked a year 6 teacher today, right at 10am, 'what's the time, sensei?'

 

& he nearly had passed out from the stress.

 

i think rather than concentrate on primary school english, the government should focus on middle/high school/university english, & just what the hell is wrong with the system. how do you get through university (& life in general?) without knowing 'it's ten o'clock?'

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