In last ETM3 lass a teacher from a junior high school in Morioka, Mr. M, came and talked to us about working at a junior high school. I learned a lot from him and now I would like to give you some advices about what you should do or you can do as trainees based on Mr. M's talk and my own experience:
1. Attitude
・ Don't forget you are a teacher for students, though you are actually a trainee.
・ Think about your students and what you can do for them at all time.
・ Get in touch with many students and try to understand them.
・ Work hard to make your classes best.
・ Do teaching with a sense of responsibility to students' learning.
・ Have a good experience for the future.
・ Learn a lot with your students.
2. Teaching skill ( Ability in English )
・ Shower many English sounds on your students in the class.
・ Use collect English sentences.
・ Read sentences with a collect rhythm and a good intonation.
・ Acquire good pronunciation.
・ Improve your English as you can.
・ Increase your vocabulary.
・ Don't read the papers you prepared.
2007年6月26日火曜日
2007年6月2日土曜日
Reflection of Microteaching: Vocabulary Teaching
I did a vocabulary teaching lesson with Kimura-san last ETM3 class. And other members of ETM3 class pretended junior high school students. Thanks for thier cooperation. I really enjoyed teaching and I hope they also enjoyed the class.
Now, I'm going to review it.
1.What we did in our lesson
First, I(JTE) and my pertner(ALT) showed students a short play in which Freddie (a leaf) and his father was talking. In the play, we tried to use the words we wanted to have students learn many times. And we tried to make it interesting. After the play, we reviewed the story and new words. Then we all practiced the new words again and again, with some variations (repeat after teachers, say together, say faster, translate from Japanese into English, etc.)
We did the whole class in English. That is because the class was special with an ALT. We wanted students to learn the words through input in the class. That would not be possible in usual class. In this respect, we used *Teaching through Inout Approach. But in the latter half of the class, we got the class to repeat in chorus and finally gave translations in repeating with flash cards. That was like *Present and Learn Approach.
*You can see the approaches here
2.What our students did during our lesson
Some students seemed to understand our play, but some didn't( Of course it was only their pretenses). But they all were willing to practice the words, and they seemed to acquire them.
3.The strenghts and weaknesses of our lesson
[Strengths]
・The play was interesting for students, even if they didn't catch every words or understand whole the play.
・Having much time to practice the words, students could memorize them.
・The class was not monotonous.
[Weaknesses]
・We didn't show the students a clear topic in the beginning of the class.
・We used long sentences in the play, so students couldn't understand it well.
・We read papers in which we had written our lines, not looking at students well.
Now, I'm going to review it.
1.What we did in our lesson
First, I(JTE) and my pertner(ALT) showed students a short play in which Freddie (a leaf) and his father was talking. In the play, we tried to use the words we wanted to have students learn many times. And we tried to make it interesting. After the play, we reviewed the story and new words. Then we all practiced the new words again and again, with some variations (repeat after teachers, say together, say faster, translate from Japanese into English, etc.)
We did the whole class in English. That is because the class was special with an ALT. We wanted students to learn the words through input in the class. That would not be possible in usual class. In this respect, we used *Teaching through Inout Approach. But in the latter half of the class, we got the class to repeat in chorus and finally gave translations in repeating with flash cards. That was like *Present and Learn Approach.
*You can see the approaches here
2.What our students did during our lesson
Some students seemed to understand our play, but some didn't( Of course it was only their pretenses). But they all were willing to practice the words, and they seemed to acquire them.
3.The strenghts and weaknesses of our lesson
[Strengths]
・The play was interesting for students, even if they didn't catch every words or understand whole the play.
・Having much time to practice the words, students could memorize them.
・The class was not monotonous.
[Weaknesses]
・We didn't show the students a clear topic in the beginning of the class.
・We used long sentences in the play, so students couldn't understand it well.
・We read papers in which we had written our lines, not looking at students well.
2007年5月17日木曜日
Methods of Teaching Vocabulary
Today we learned about two approaches for teaching vocabulary: the Present and Learn Approach and the Teaching through Input Approach. You can see a PowerPoint presentation of the approaches here. I would like to tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach as well as the approach I would use as a Junior High School English teacher.
1. Present and Learn Approach
■Strengths
・It is easy to understand for all students because it has an explanation of a new vocabulary in their own language.
・Students can learn step by step: after they understand the meaning of a new word and repeat it some times, they use the word in sentences.
■Weaknesses
・As the number of the words increase, it may get more difficult for students to memorize them.
・Some students may get bored with the activities because they may be monotonous.
2.Teaching through Input Approach
■Strengths
・Students can learn a lot of new vocabulary and grammar incidentally not with their translations but with their images.
・Students would get better in guessing.
・It may not be boring for students because they have to attend to the message to find out what a teacher means.
■Weaknesses
・Some students who are not good at English would get bored with the activities because they may not understand them at all.
Lastly as a junior high school English teacher I would use both of these two methods for teaching vocabulary, having one of them make up for the weaknesses of the other one.
1. Present and Learn Approach
■Strengths
・It is easy to understand for all students because it has an explanation of a new vocabulary in their own language.
・Students can learn step by step: after they understand the meaning of a new word and repeat it some times, they use the word in sentences.
■Weaknesses
・As the number of the words increase, it may get more difficult for students to memorize them.
・Some students may get bored with the activities because they may be monotonous.
2.Teaching through Input Approach
■Strengths
・Students can learn a lot of new vocabulary and grammar incidentally not with their translations but with their images.
・Students would get better in guessing.
・It may not be boring for students because they have to attend to the message to find out what a teacher means.
■Weaknesses
・Some students who are not good at English would get bored with the activities because they may not understand them at all.
Lastly as a junior high school English teacher I would use both of these two methods for teaching vocabulary, having one of them make up for the weaknesses of the other one.
2007年5月16日水曜日
Ideas for Communicative Activities
Today, I am going to review two of the 'typical Japanese junior high school' communicative activities presented in ETM 3. The activities I am going to review are カルタ and Find the Difference. You can view them here. How would I improve them?
1. カルタ
I have an idea to have students enjoy and learn though this activity in another way.
(1) A teacher says a certain word (instead of a sentence).
(2) A student picks up the card on which picture related to the word is drawn. Then, the student will make a sentence using the word.
2. Find the Difference
It would need a long time to do 'Find the Difference' in the way. So making it simple, I would improve it like this,
A: In my picture, there are five books on the bed. How about in your picture?
B: In my picture, there are three books on the bed. So it is a difference.
1. カルタ
I have an idea to have students enjoy and learn though this activity in another way.
(1) A teacher says a certain word (instead of a sentence).
(2) A student picks up the card on which picture related to the word is drawn. Then, the student will make a sentence using the word.
2. Find the Difference
It would need a long time to do 'Find the Difference' in the way. So making it simple, I would improve it like this,
A: In my picture, there are five books on the bed. How about in your picture?
B: In my picture, there are three books on the bed. So it is a difference.
2007年5月5日土曜日
How to Learn English
I think that learning English should be more pleasant and practical. That is because many Japanese students are bored with studying English only for exams. And some of them even hate English. I emphasize, as I wrote in the article about my experience, originally the main purpose in studying English is not to pass exams but communicate with people all over the world. Then how can we learn English pleasantly? Let me give some examples just from my experiences.
First, faculty for reading can be developed by reading English books that we want to read. If we read the books we want to read, we are willing to read English and get pleasure from them. But that cannot be achieved by reading only text books.
As for writing skill, it is raised by writing things that we want to write: experiences, diaries, and …anything. In a general writing class in high school in Japan, we mainly study grammar and translate conventional Japanese sentences into English. That is important, I know, but is not interesting.
How about listening and speaking? These skills are achieved by talking with non-Japanese whose mother tongue is English. If they cannot speak Japanese at all, we must talk in English to communicate with them. In conversations, we would get pleasures of communicating with non-Japanese and also realize our lack of knowledge or skills in communicating in English. That can be motivation for learning.
Last, I add that I don't deny a general English teaching at school to be good. Of course, things which are being done at school are important to acquire the language. But as I wrote in the beginning, it is boring to study only for exams. So things mentioned above are my proposal that English classes would do better to have them partly to make study interesting.
First, faculty for reading can be developed by reading English books that we want to read. If we read the books we want to read, we are willing to read English and get pleasure from them. But that cannot be achieved by reading only text books.
As for writing skill, it is raised by writing things that we want to write: experiences, diaries, and …anything. In a general writing class in high school in Japan, we mainly study grammar and translate conventional Japanese sentences into English. That is important, I know, but is not interesting.
How about listening and speaking? These skills are achieved by talking with non-Japanese whose mother tongue is English. If they cannot speak Japanese at all, we must talk in English to communicate with them. In conversations, we would get pleasures of communicating with non-Japanese and also realize our lack of knowledge or skills in communicating in English. That can be motivation for learning.
Last, I add that I don't deny a general English teaching at school to be good. Of course, things which are being done at school are important to acquire the language. But as I wrote in the beginning, it is boring to study only for exams. So things mentioned above are my proposal that English classes would do better to have them partly to make study interesting.
2007年4月23日月曜日
My Experience Studying English
English has been my favorite subject since I was junior high school student.
When I took a first English class at junior high school, I was really anxious about learning a new language. But the anxiety faded away soon and I was fascinated by the pleasure of learning English. Actually, thanks to my first English teacher, I came to like English.
Let me tell about her just a little. She was spirited and enthusiastic. She often made a joke and gave some funny examples in order to attract the interest of us and to have us like or understand English. So her classes were always amusing and interesting.
In my experience studying English at school, the most valuable and impressive thing was talking to non-Japanese in English. Sometimes ALT came to the class, and taught us English, playing games. And I remember we had a chance to talk to non-Japanese outside the school as part of the class.
But there were few opportunity to speak English, particularly in high school. we studied English for examinations at school. The class placed great importance on the grammar, and we did reading, writing and listening over and over,while we hardly did speaking.
This often occurs very commonly at many schools in Japan of today. Therefore, students in Japan are not used to speaking English, and are shy of speaking English.
In my opinion, we learn English for the purpose of communicating with people all over the world, so speaking is also an important skill, or perhaps it may be the most important skill. So if I become an English teacher, I will have enough time to have students talk in English.
Now I'm going to English conversation school to make up for the lack of experience of speaking and my skill in speaking . I'm really enjoy talking with non- Japanese teacher at the school. And now I love English, not as a subject but itself.
When I took a first English class at junior high school, I was really anxious about learning a new language. But the anxiety faded away soon and I was fascinated by the pleasure of learning English. Actually, thanks to my first English teacher, I came to like English.
Let me tell about her just a little. She was spirited and enthusiastic. She often made a joke and gave some funny examples in order to attract the interest of us and to have us like or understand English. So her classes were always amusing and interesting.
In my experience studying English at school, the most valuable and impressive thing was talking to non-Japanese in English. Sometimes ALT came to the class, and taught us English, playing games. And I remember we had a chance to talk to non-Japanese outside the school as part of the class.
But there were few opportunity to speak English, particularly in high school. we studied English for examinations at school. The class placed great importance on the grammar, and we did reading, writing and listening over and over,while we hardly did speaking.
This often occurs very commonly at many schools in Japan of today. Therefore, students in Japan are not used to speaking English, and are shy of speaking English.
In my opinion, we learn English for the purpose of communicating with people all over the world, so speaking is also an important skill, or perhaps it may be the most important skill. So if I become an English teacher, I will have enough time to have students talk in English.
Now I'm going to English conversation school to make up for the lack of experience of speaking and my skill in speaking . I'm really enjoy talking with non- Japanese teacher at the school. And now I love English, not as a subject but itself.
2007年4月19日木曜日
Self Introduction
Hello. My name is Keiko. Please call me Keichan.
I live in Morioka. I'm from Miyagi.
I'm a student in the depertment of education at Iwate University. I'm majoring in the elementaly school education and specializing English.
I live in Morioka. I'm from Miyagi.
I'm a student in the depertment of education at Iwate University. I'm majoring in the elementaly school education and specializing English.
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