Get rid of ALTs and use that money for better teacher training and promote student exchange programs.
You would need to spend over a decade and a lot of money revamping the entirety of education.
Get rid of Katakana in English textbooks
Distinguish between the ALT dispatch industry and the education field.
ALT dispatch companies don’t belong in schools. They’re industry, not education.
A very simple change would be to add some context to the target language in textbooks.
Just curious but how is it English being taught in places where kids successfully learn to communicate, like say Sweden? Could what’s successful there actually be implemented here or is the gap between English and Japanese just too great?
Stop giving them teachers who speak Japanese during the English lesson and get rid of the Japanese teacher aid who’s there.
I’m currently in a Japanese high schooler as a 3rd year. The amount of babying they still get is horrible. Also the way they start learning English is really bad. The Japanese teachers who speak English (learned another way) even say that the system is bad.
Make it an optional class. Each student can either take English or something else. Just brainstorming some ideas but the other option(s) could be Japanese Sign Language, Chinese, Korean, coding languages, or something else entirely like technology.
This immediately lowers the class size from 35 to 5 (probably being generous here). Now each student gets more attention from the teacher and more activities are class-feasible. Individual weaknesses and strengths will be easier to pick up on and accommodate to, instead of teachers waving it away with “he must not like English” or “she studies hard”.
Since it’s now an optional class, the disgusting (and detrimental) focus on tests is lessened. This removes the stress of hurrying output along and lets teachers respect the silent period and absorption of the language more.
Of course, this would also require teachers who know what they’re doing. I’ve been in classes with less than 5 students before, usually the “special education” classes which are sometimes full of kids who are just a little shy or, in one case, being overweight was apparently cause to be put in special education. The class still failed because the teacher still taught it with their audiolingual, output-based methods that teach to the test.
**REQUIRE** all foreign “teachers” in Japan obtain some type of certificate(call it a TEJ certificate – Teach English in Japan certificate). It can be a basic 3 month course. It teaches you basic fundamentals of teaching. Companies that sponsor you (AEON, Interac whatever) must pay for you attend this program. Ensure that not everyone passes – the weebs, weirdos and creeps should fail if they can’t adhere to basic teaching criteria. In which case they are to be deported.
**REQUIRE** that teachers “certified” this way attend mandatory workshops to keep their knowledge up to date (can be every couple of years). Failure to keep your ceritifcation current leads to expiration of the TEJ certificate and deportation.
**REQUIRE** that all companies pay their employees health insurance, pension etc as a “full-time employee”. Companies/Eikawas that cannot should be run out of business. End the exploitation.
Only students that want to be there. Better punishments for perverted students.
Stop hiring nubs! My small city college recently hired two of them, one full-time. The full-timer can’t attract more than 30 students (I have over 200), and the other one who is a part-timer managed to get 2 students.
Honestly, it’s a stupid industry to begin with. It should be some small lesbian basket weaving course. There’s almost no reason for Japanese to learn how to speak English, unless there is a legitimate reason, like maybe they want to work overseas in an English speaking country. None of my students need to speak English, and they totally get this! It’s just credits, and the sooner they forget what they are taught, the better.
In the case of the eikaiwa industry – hire qualified people. Qualified teachers teaching, qualified managers managing, people who understand how to write a textbook writing textbooks. Right now it’s just a bunch of people with no relevant background doing bullshit and hoping for the best.
Also offer full time positions with adequate pay, insurance coverage, benefits etc. to attract worthwhile people.
Sadly I don’t think it’s ever going to happen because all these companies care about is turning a profit. The don’t care about education, their students, their teachers or their staff. Any warm body is good enough.
The quality over quantity argument can be said about students as well.
Kids who actually have a interest in learning English should apply . Parents should stop forcing there kids as it effects the small minority that wants to learn.
I’m pretty straight up with my kids, they all have their own talents but English isn’t one of them . If kids want to play baseball stop wasting your time in my class, if you want to be a YouTuber: stop coming to my class.
I’m tired of shit students.
I agree with a lot of what’s been said here.
Something I didn’t see in the comments so far is something I noticed a long time ago.
I’m about 15 years removed from my eikaiwa days, so forgive me if what I say is out-of-date.
Spend money on law enforcement.
I worked at Nova from 98 until 07, just before it went down. During my time there the other teachers and I noticed a lot of unseemly tactics from the Japanese staff, and from the company. Almost all of this came out into the public eye at one time or another.
Had there been sufficient oversight of the company’s practices, billions of yen that were unpaid by Nova (mostly insurance fraud) would have been saved.
And that’s only one example.
Don’t get me started on the education system. Ha ha ha
Make it illegal to sponsor foreigners’ work visa under the dispatch 派遣 worker type of employment. This would force BOEs to have to think about who they hire and get rid of nearly all the blood sucking dispatch companies. It would equally lift the quality of teachers hired as well as improve their lives in Japan.
If I ever start my own school: hire trained teachers with tiers of responsibility based on qualifications. Someone with masters or more can do whatever they want (following a grammar progression guideline so classes by different teachers progress about the same speed), BA should follow premade lesson plans but have freedom to make modifications, certificated teachers must strictly use a premade lesson plan. Pay is based on qualifications and experience. And if you don’t have a masters time is given to study around class times.
Most of it’s been said but meh…
– Have a mandatory ALT/eikaiwa intro course that you’ve gotta do before coming out and maintain. Doesn’t have to be massive… just SOMETHING to ensure everybody knows a common set of standards/expectations (and nubz aren’t learning as they go by doing stupid shit with kids when they really shoulda known better). Attach this to a license and make it revokable if you do stupid shit.
– Regulate eikaiwas so that they have to meet various standards (e.g. for starters maybe safety, all staff have had working with children checks and at least one teacher has a master of TESOL).
– Build an enterprise agreement for pay so that employers (labour hire firms in particular) have to meet various pay/conditions. Attach this to some sorta performance/development framework so that you’re not churning through teachers every 5 years, and people are improving as they stay (rather than becoming cynical arseholes who give less or a shit the longer they stay).
– Have some sort of mental health/support hotline. Even just a counsellor who can talk people through everything. Lotsa people suffer from mental health challenges while abroad and TBH I think it can be more harm than good for people to go online. I remember when I was battling, all I could find were a bunch of lousy internet trolls telling me my job’s shit and I should go neck myself (JCJ style).
Schools pay for ALTs based on their ability and experience and not some shit flat rate which the dispatch companies take more than half of. I would create a reading system that starts from kindergarten, it would give access to books online in English with audio. I would change these proficiency tests to be able to do high level English yet have topics and themes that are age appropriate (some questions on these tests are absolutely unfair for younger test takers) I would create a list can do vocabulary list for each grade.(I’m sure they exist but make it more uniform across all textbooks)
Honestly the best things they could do is make English one of several foreign languages that students can choose from while in middle/high school and stop using English as a Harry-Potter-Sorting-Hat for entrance exams/job applications (unless the student is majoring in English or doing a job that requires English proficiency, such as translation, in order to be done properly).
Basically, stop requiring students to learn English because 1) most will never need or use it and 2) the system is borked specifically because of how much money stands to be made by maintaining the status quo (ie if Japanese people actually learned proficient English, a lot of companies and people would be out of jobs).
I think if English weren’t required (for entrance exams/job applications) you’d see the whole English “industry” in Japan collapse and I’m pretty convinced that would be a good thing. Only a few positions available and schools/employers can be picky about who they take and ensure only qualified people do the jobs that actually need doing. Meanwhile, kids can actually choose a language they’re interested in and perhaps even one (like Chinese) that is probably more useful or at least likely to be encountered while living your whole life in Japan.
But of course this will never happen. Japan using English tests as a way to sort potential students/employees has a history dating back almost to the Meiji restoration. Traditions die hard here, so I expect this one will be around for a while longer.
It’s been mentioned a little bit, but we need an actual professional development track, clear job titles, and recognition of foreign licensure, certs, and degrees or some sort of transfer/testing program.
Basically, any sort of entry level eikaiwa/ALT position should be temporary. You should get something like a humanities visa that will never be increased past 1 year duration if you don’t make progress in professional development. This of course means very clear and accessible tracks to licensure, certification, and more serious/long term contracts have to be put in place. Basically you would have to graduate to becoming an actual teacher with credentials of some sort. If you have a license or relevant degree, you can skip some rungs on the ladder and just apply directly for licensure relevant to your position.
We need full licenses made available for people who have the skills, and pay/positions that are competitive with what they would get in other countries with the same qualifications. Right now, it’s a lottery depending on what prefecture you’re in as to the availability of “special” licenses to be full teachers. The only standard teaching license requires a degree from a Japanese 4 year college, which makes them impossible to get for the vast majority of foreign residents.
Without a clear track to becoming a full teacher with a license and training for foreigners in Japan, it will continue to be unappealing for qualified talent to come here, and there will be no incentive or distinction for schools to hire for. You can be a FOB with a random bachelor’s and no experience, or you can be an experienced teacher with a license from another country, and you still check, and don’t check, the same boxes for the majority of schools here.
It would not be possible to reform the system unless the Japanese government decided that it was important for all citizens to be able to use English as a means of communication. Currently English is only seen as a subject, and communicative ability is not one of the learning outcomes.
Until then, nothing will change so the discussion is, unfortunately, largely pointless.
Right now they are only interested in test scores, and as such, that is how English will continue to be taught.
The current guidelines not withstanding, English is not taught in a way that facilitates communicative ability.
That said, the best way forward would be to chose a model of learning that actually works, such as those employed in high-performing countries like Sweden, Norway, Holland, and Austria. Teachers there are required to have internationally recognized ESL teaching qualifications; learning starts at a young age; and the people as a society have decided that English is important for both personal and economic growth.
In Japan not only would you have to change the minds of the government ministers and the various education advisors, you would also have the change the mindset of the populace. In general, Japanese people see no need for English in their lives.
This is why the situation is not going to change.
How about copying the #1 ranked country on English proficiency on how they get their people to learn? I think that would be a start.
-Make English teachers do some time abroad before they can enter the classroom. -Move textbooks away from grammar translation. -Move to a more international English with ALTS -Make JET easier to handle and get rid of dispatch companies. Increase training, -Allow for greater independence of schools and teachers in how to implement courses -Allow for greater variety of textbook choices, or no textbook if teachers decide. -Increase workers rights across the board in Ekaiwas and Schools generally -Increase awareness among people about the benefits of a trained teacher. -Move to a more communicative style . -Allow teachers to bring pets to school. -Allow for language choice. -Increase awareness of learning differences. -have more study abroad chances for students. -diversify testing and standards so the courses aren’t a slave to the test, or at least minimize this.
[deleted]
Unionize. That’s literally the only thing that will fix anything.
26 comments
[deleted]
Get rid of ALTs and use that money for better teacher training and promote student exchange programs.
You would need to spend over a decade and a lot of money revamping the entirety of education.
Get rid of Katakana in English textbooks
Distinguish between the ALT dispatch industry and the education field.
ALT dispatch companies don’t belong in schools. They’re industry, not education.
A very simple change would be to add some context to the target language in textbooks.
Just curious but how is it English being taught in places where kids successfully learn to communicate, like say Sweden? Could what’s successful there actually be implemented here or is the gap between English and Japanese just too great?
Stop giving them teachers who speak Japanese during the English lesson and get rid of the Japanese teacher aid who’s there.
I’m currently in a Japanese high schooler as a 3rd year. The amount of babying they still get is horrible. Also the way they start learning English is really bad. The Japanese teachers who speak English (learned another way) even say that the system is bad.
Make it an optional class. Each student can either take English or something else. Just brainstorming some ideas but the other option(s) could be Japanese Sign Language, Chinese, Korean, coding languages, or something else entirely like technology.
This immediately lowers the class size from 35 to 5 (probably being generous here). Now each student gets more attention from the teacher and more activities are class-feasible. Individual weaknesses and strengths will be easier to pick up on and accommodate to, instead of teachers waving it away with “he must not like English” or “she studies hard”.
Since it’s now an optional class, the disgusting (and detrimental) focus on tests is lessened. This removes the stress of hurrying output along and lets teachers respect the silent period and absorption of the language more.
Of course, this would also require teachers who know what they’re doing. I’ve been in classes with less than 5 students before, usually the “special education” classes which are sometimes full of kids who are just a little shy or, in one case, being overweight was apparently cause to be put in special education. The class still failed because the teacher still taught it with their audiolingual, output-based methods that teach to the test.
**REQUIRE** all foreign “teachers” in Japan obtain some type of certificate(call it a TEJ certificate – Teach English in Japan certificate). It can be a basic 3 month course. It teaches you basic fundamentals of teaching. Companies that sponsor you (AEON, Interac whatever) must pay for you attend this program. Ensure that not everyone passes – the weebs, weirdos and creeps should fail if they can’t adhere to basic teaching criteria. In which case they are to be deported.
**REQUIRE** that teachers “certified” this way attend mandatory workshops to keep their knowledge up to date (can be every couple of years). Failure to keep your ceritifcation current leads to expiration of the TEJ certificate and deportation.
**REQUIRE** that all companies pay their employees health insurance, pension etc as a “full-time employee”. Companies/Eikawas that cannot should be run out of business. End the exploitation.
Only students that want to be there. Better punishments for perverted students.
Stop hiring nubs! My small city college recently hired two of them, one full-time. The full-timer can’t attract more than 30 students (I have over 200), and the other one who is a part-timer managed to get 2 students.
Honestly, it’s a stupid industry to begin with. It should be some small lesbian basket weaving course. There’s almost no reason for Japanese to learn how to speak English, unless there is a legitimate reason, like maybe they want to work overseas in an English speaking country. None of my students need to speak English, and they totally get this! It’s just credits, and the sooner they forget what they are taught, the better.
In the case of the eikaiwa industry – hire qualified people. Qualified teachers teaching, qualified managers managing, people who understand how to write a textbook writing textbooks. Right now it’s just a bunch of people with no relevant background doing bullshit and hoping for the best.
Also offer full time positions with adequate pay, insurance coverage, benefits etc. to attract worthwhile people.
Sadly I don’t think it’s ever going to happen because all these companies care about is turning a profit. The don’t care about education, their students, their teachers or their staff. Any warm body is good enough.
The quality over quantity argument can be said about students as well.
Kids who actually have a interest in learning English should apply . Parents should stop forcing there kids as it effects the small minority that wants to learn.
I’m pretty straight up with my kids, they all have their own talents but English isn’t one of them . If kids want to play baseball stop wasting your time in my class, if you want to be a YouTuber: stop coming to my class.
I’m tired of shit students.
I agree with a lot of what’s been said here.
Something I didn’t see in the comments so far is something I noticed a long time ago.
I’m about 15 years removed from my eikaiwa days, so forgive me if what I say is out-of-date.
Spend money on law enforcement.
I worked at Nova from 98 until 07, just before it went down. During my time there the other teachers and I noticed a lot of unseemly tactics from the Japanese staff, and from the company. Almost all of this came out into the public eye at one time or another.
Had there been sufficient oversight of the company’s practices, billions of yen that were unpaid by Nova (mostly insurance fraud) would have been saved.
And that’s only one example.
Don’t get me started on the education system. Ha ha ha
Make it illegal to sponsor foreigners’ work visa under the dispatch 派遣 worker type of employment. This would force BOEs to have to think about who they hire and get rid of nearly all the blood sucking dispatch companies. It would equally lift the quality of teachers hired as well as improve their lives in Japan.
If I ever start my own school: hire trained teachers with tiers of responsibility based on qualifications. Someone with masters or more can do whatever they want (following a grammar progression guideline so classes by different teachers progress about the same speed), BA should follow premade lesson plans but have freedom to make modifications, certificated teachers must strictly use a premade lesson plan. Pay is based on qualifications and experience. And if you don’t have a masters time is given to study around class times.
Most of it’s been said but meh…
– Have a mandatory ALT/eikaiwa intro course that you’ve gotta do before coming out and maintain. Doesn’t have to be massive… just SOMETHING to ensure everybody knows a common set of standards/expectations (and nubz aren’t learning as they go by doing stupid shit with kids when they really shoulda known better). Attach this to a license and make it revokable if you do stupid shit.
– Regulate eikaiwas so that they have to meet various standards (e.g. for starters maybe safety, all staff have had working with children checks and at least one teacher has a master of TESOL).
– Build an enterprise agreement for pay so that employers (labour hire firms in particular) have to meet various pay/conditions. Attach this to some sorta performance/development framework so that you’re not churning through teachers every 5 years, and people are improving as they stay (rather than becoming cynical arseholes who give less or a shit the longer they stay).
– Have some sort of mental health/support hotline. Even just a counsellor who can talk people through everything. Lotsa people suffer from mental health challenges while abroad and TBH I think it can be more harm than good for people to go online. I remember when I was battling, all I could find were a bunch of lousy internet trolls telling me my job’s shit and I should go neck myself (JCJ style).
Schools pay for ALTs based on their ability and experience and not some shit flat rate which the dispatch companies take more than half of. I would create a reading system that starts from kindergarten, it would give access to books online in English with audio. I would change these proficiency tests to be able to do high level English yet have topics and themes that are age appropriate (some questions on these tests are absolutely unfair for younger test takers) I would create a list can do vocabulary list for each grade.(I’m sure they exist but make it more uniform across all textbooks)
Honestly the best things they could do is make English one of several foreign languages that students can choose from while in middle/high school and stop using English as a Harry-Potter-Sorting-Hat for entrance exams/job applications (unless the student is majoring in English or doing a job that requires English proficiency, such as translation, in order to be done properly).
Basically, stop requiring students to learn English because 1) most will never need or use it and 2) the system is borked specifically because of how much money stands to be made by maintaining the status quo (ie if Japanese people actually learned proficient English, a lot of companies and people would be out of jobs).
I think if English weren’t required (for entrance exams/job applications) you’d see the whole English “industry” in Japan collapse and I’m pretty convinced that would be a good thing. Only a few positions available and schools/employers can be picky about who they take and ensure only qualified people do the jobs that actually need doing. Meanwhile, kids can actually choose a language they’re interested in and perhaps even one (like Chinese) that is probably more useful or at least likely to be encountered while living your whole life in Japan.
But of course this will never happen. Japan using English tests as a way to sort potential students/employees has a history dating back almost to the Meiji restoration. Traditions die hard here, so I expect this one will be around for a while longer.
It’s been mentioned a little bit, but we need an actual professional development track, clear job titles, and recognition of foreign licensure, certs, and degrees or some sort of transfer/testing program.
Basically, any sort of entry level eikaiwa/ALT position should be temporary. You should get something like a humanities visa that will never be increased past 1 year duration if you don’t make progress in professional development. This of course means very clear and accessible tracks to licensure, certification, and more serious/long term contracts have to be put in place. Basically you would have to graduate to becoming an actual teacher with credentials of some sort. If you have a license or relevant degree, you can skip some rungs on the ladder and just apply directly for licensure relevant to your position.
We need full licenses made available for people who have the skills, and pay/positions that are competitive with what they would get in other countries with the same qualifications. Right now, it’s a lottery depending on what prefecture you’re in as to the availability of “special” licenses to be full teachers. The only standard teaching license requires a degree from a Japanese 4 year college, which makes them impossible to get for the vast majority of foreign residents.
Without a clear track to becoming a full teacher with a license and training for foreigners in Japan, it will continue to be unappealing for qualified talent to come here, and there will be no incentive or distinction for schools to hire for. You can be a FOB with a random bachelor’s and no experience, or you can be an experienced teacher with a license from another country, and you still check, and don’t check, the same boxes for the majority of schools here.
It would not be possible to reform the system unless the Japanese government decided that it was important for all citizens to be able to use English as a means of communication. Currently English is only seen as a subject, and communicative ability is not one of the learning outcomes.
Until then, nothing will change so the discussion is, unfortunately, largely pointless.
Right now they are only interested in test scores, and as such, that is how English will continue to be taught.
The current guidelines not withstanding, English is not taught in a way that facilitates communicative ability.
That said, the best way forward would be to chose a model of learning that actually works, such as those employed in high-performing countries like Sweden, Norway, Holland, and Austria. Teachers there are required to have internationally recognized ESL teaching qualifications; learning starts at a young age; and the people as a society have decided that English is important for both personal and economic growth.
In Japan not only would you have to change the minds of the government ministers and the various education advisors, you would also have the change the mindset of the populace. In general, Japanese people see no need for English in their lives.
This is why the situation is not going to change.
How about copying the #1 ranked country on English proficiency on how they get their people to learn? I think that would be a start.
-Make English teachers do some time abroad before they can enter the classroom.
-Move textbooks away from grammar translation.
-Move to a more international English with ALTS
-Make JET easier to handle and get rid of dispatch companies. Increase training,
-Allow for greater independence of schools and teachers in how to implement courses
-Allow for greater variety of textbook choices, or no textbook if teachers decide.
-Increase workers rights across the board in Ekaiwas and Schools generally
-Increase awareness among people about the benefits of a trained teacher.
-Move to a more communicative style .
-Allow teachers to bring pets to school.
-Allow for language choice.
-Increase awareness of learning differences.
-have more study abroad chances for students.
-diversify testing and standards so the courses aren’t a slave to the test, or at least minimize this.
[deleted]
Unionize. That’s literally the only thing that will fix anything.