I am curious about people’s views on this as I am a new ALT and have been thinking a lot about the ethics and what my role is as an (assistant) language teacher.
Japanese NG situations for me: In the classroom, in the hallways, basically any situation where English could be used, understood, and beneficial.
Japanese OK situations for me: Anytime a student needs an adult and not an instructor of English.
I made this post in response to a happening where I was saying goodbye to students by the gate when one first grader (elementary) stopped with me telling me she was waiting for a friend. I figured she was done with classes for the day and it seemed like she just wanted to chat so we did in Japanese. A teacher came up an scolded her for speaking Japanese to me. I felt pretty bad about it but it added to my thought process about where Japanese is appropriate as an ALT.
While I do not make friends with students I do want to relate with them as any other teacher would (beyond their favorite colors). Is the ALT destined to be merely a ghost in students lives? Just passing by. Nothing more then just a passerby holding a tape recorder?
Anyways what are your thoughts?
27 comments
There are a few reasons for this. First they don’t want the kids to form attachments because you will likely be gone before the school year is over. Most ALTs don’t stay in Japan very long and are known to return home with no notice. Another reason is a lot of ALTs get caught committing crimes against children (about one a month ends up on the news). Stopping the ALT from communicating prevents situations where questionable behavior can occur. I have seen way too many ALTs wind up marring former students half their age, serious grooming shit going on there.
Personally, teaching high school, I find that to explain complex ideas, (ie. Subject object verbs, we had a debate in class, and some club functions) I use Japanese to try to make sure they understand what im saying. 2nen, I cut that use in half, only using japanese to explain SUPER complex ideas, and often deferring to my JTE to translate some of them because its easier. 3nen is almost all english, only speaking japanese when I want to practice mine. (but at school i often do with the teachers.) I work at a technical school, so a lot of the English I use is woodworking/metalworking/shipbuilding jargon, which they know, or have at least heard of before.
my no go areas are in the halls, during cleaning time, and if someone says Hi to me in English, which is all the time.
I will speak Japanese to a student if we are out and im not at school. even then, its mostly half and half, as they want to practice, and i want to practice too.
as for being in a part of students lives, we inevitably do that by teaching. I want my students to continue to use english outside of school, and a lot of the technical students want to get jobs outside of Japan, so I help them there too.
everyone gonna be different. you do you! 😀 it is an exchange program after all.
I think it really depends on the school and students. In my school none of the teachers scolded me for using Japanese and would even tell the students that since I speak Japanese they can ask me questions in Japanese.
With ES if the students are active, I prefer to use English. But if the students are shy, embarrassed to talk, I would reassure and calm them that they can ask in Japanese first so it doesn’t give them more unnecessary stress and hatred towards English.
It kind of depends on the Japanese teachers and what they expect of you. But personally I think that using Japanese to make a bond with the children isn’t wrong. Besides teaching English, the job of an ALT is also to introduce the kids to a foreigner and foreign culture. Imo it would kind of suck if only the kids who are good in English can experience this.
At ES, it entirely depends on the grade, HRT, and individual student. The better the HRT is at understanding English and getting the class involved in English, the easier it is for me to stick to English. When I don’t have as much support from the HRT, I have to resort to some Japanese to get through some explanations of activities, etc.
If the student is trying to engage me in English, we’ll talk in English as much as possible. But if communication isn’t working we’ll switch to Japanese. Or if there’s a student struggling in class time and isn’t going to understand a single word of English when I help them, then yeah, I’ll use Japanese.
I hate that dispatch companies (and your school apparently) preach Only English, all the time! I think it should be English as much as possible and Japanese when you need it.
It’s all contextual to the situation in my opinion. There is no one size fits all approach that is meeting your students needs.
I found if I forced English into every interaction I had with the kids it generally had a negative effect over time. Regardless of whether you want to make friends with your students or not, I do think that you need to make them comfortable enough with your teaching to have them not just look at the JTE for an explanation after every time you open your mouth. I generally used Japanese for explanations that were complex but tried to use English in 1 on 1 interactions for students that were comfortable with that. Outside the classroom was a mix as well, some kids wont come near you if all you do is force English on them every time they want to interact, this aversion can carry over into your lessons. Others will jump at the chance for extra practice or to show off their growing abilities.
When I was at Gaba, I opted not to pretend that I couldn’t understand Japanese but I did try to avoid speaking it. So if a client got stuck and answered in Japanese, I would tell them how to express that in English. The company trained us to always elicit the English in such situations but that’s easier said than done. And even as an ALT, I’ve maintained this policy
In class and when appropriate I always try to use English. However, the reality is in a class of thirty kids on average you will have kids on 3 – 5 different levels of understanding. Unless you are the lord and savior of scaffolding and have an intimate knowledge of each student’s level it is going to be very difficult to reach each student in the class. I always used English, gave them some help, and then if they don’t understand I provide them some help in Japanese (either the grammar point or vocabulary).
I think outside of school time (as you said, once the classes are finished and you are all heading home) you should speak whatever you can with them. Sure, some of my students will speak to me in English the best they can. Some, however, are either disinterested, way below grade level, or terrified to speak English. I made a connection with some of my students because I would speak to them in Japanese during club time I joined. When you are willing to meet them halfway, I have noticed a lot of students open up and see you more as a teacher and a friendly face.
As for if you are a tape recorder…. well that depends on your school and teacher. Over time I pretty much became a full-on teacher where I worked. Respect me or don’t, I’m not dependant on it.
*edit used a word twice.
Go ahead and fo it if you want to. It will not make or break a student’s academic career and I’ve seem people play it both ways and develop good relationships with students
My policy with children is as much English as possible, but Japanese when necessary. Both are extremely subjective 😉
One of the biggest rules I learned during my master of TESOL was that you have to obey the local cultural expectations. In the case of Japan, it’s generally the rule that you only speak in English because they want an immersive classroom. Heck when I learned Japanese, my teacher didn’t even speak English, so it was awesome because I HAD to use English. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the experience to be complete immersion.
> Is the ALT destined to be merely a ghost in students lives? Just passing by. Nothing more then just a passerby holding a tape recorder?
No you’re not a tape recorder. You’re providing an immersive experience using classroom English. TBH I think the better you are at Japanese (and the more experienced you are as a teacher), the easier this is. I mean I can strike up a conversation with anybody in Japan where they think they’re speaking English because I’ve quite intentionally chosen words/phrases that I KNOW they’ll understand (because they’re either common slogans or they’ve been imported into Japanese through katakana). I still speak at a native tone and use proper English flow/pronunciation/intonation, but to me that’s a skill you gain with experience.
Honestly I don’t get people’s desire to burst the immersive bubble (9.99/10 times using poor quality Japanese that just confuses them even more). Providing an immersive bubble is a skill, not a burden. Further, the policy’s one that’s nation-wide, set far above the paygrade of your humble JT. Thus… don’t be a pain and give them grief about it.
The professional answer to this is there is nearly zero research that supports any sort of L2 only EFL education, which is what Japan teaches. It’s untenable, inefficient, and kills far too many opportunities for learning while promoting very few. Your students not only need to know how to engage the lesson content in English, they also have to understand the administrative and descriptive vocabulary of the classroom.
There is no “immersion” or ESL at a school where the language of instruction, administration, and socialization, is all Japanese. So any L2 only approach, especially with students that aren’t returnees or who have never lived in an English speech community, is a whole lot of effort, pressure, and posturing for little to no gain over an EFL mixed language approach.
In addition, if you can actually speak Japanese well enough to conduct your classes in it, you will be able to give your students an example of someone that can use both languages functionally. Such examples are exceedingly rare in Japan, but it can really change classroom expectations for the better for students to know problems and misunderstanding can be navigated in both languages. If you are in an assistant position, students will likely see you more as a teacher, and less as just some rando that speaks English that helps their “real” teacher.
1st year elementary? Yeah that’s tough. I probably would have spoken to the student in Japanese, too. But since she was scolded by the teacher, you should probably speak to your students in English from now on in those situations lest they get scolded again. If you’re not sure what the exact rule is, feel free to ask another teacher at the school.
On topic generally: all English, all the time unless a student is bawling or bleeding. Know what I mean? If a student is emotionally distressed or severely injured and no one else is around – yeah, sure, talk to them in Japanese and assess the situation.
I would say that those situations are exceedingly rare because a school day is planned down to the minute and students are rarely if ever separated from other students but still able to get injured and then *you* would be the one to find them. It just strikes me as too unlikely.
All of my ALT work was in JHS and HS, though, so I’m coming at this from the opposite direction. For really little kids there are probably more situations where you, as the ALT, might need to speak Japanese to a student.
Language is a tool. Instead of making rules for when to use each language, good teachers should be using their judgment to work out when their tool is most effective for language learning.
>A teacher came up an scolded her for speaking Japanese to me. I felt pretty bad about it but it added to my thought process about where Japanese is appropriate as an ALT.
I’ve met a fair few teachers like this over the years. Self-proclaimed sempai who think it’s their business to inject themselves into any situation they witness and think it’s their job to define everyone else’s roles at school.
Forget ’em.
Are you a dispatch ALT? If not, then ignore this next part. In general, your company will tell you to always use English when interacting with a student. However, the rumor here is that they say this because… their dispatch hires generally can’t speak or don’t even bother trying to learn ANY Japanese. So they try to do a blanket enforcement of “Never use Japanese”
Now, regardless of whether you’re dispatch or not… first, my own personal belief is that you do need to use the learner’s native language for effective communication. And really, it’s supposed to be about communication. Supposedly, there’s also a huge debate about this in the language-learning circles.
I think you’ll find that outside of the “definitely only use English” situations, you’ll end up using Japanese if you know enough for the situation. Again, it comes back to the idea of communication- using a little japanese when you don’t have to explicitly use English does help to build at least something of a friendly relationship.
All that said, there is one other trap that you have to be careful of, and usually the other reason why dispatch companies stress all English, all the time: there are definitely students who, once they find out you can speak Japanese, go the “Why should I even bother speaking English (which they may or may not like anyways) if this person can speak Japanese?” route.
I just wrote an Op-Ed for my Master’s on that very subject.
Depends purely on your school and their relationship with ALT. My schools allowed me to speak Japanese during non class hours with students. Especially since I would help them resolve issues or explain grammar they couldn’t comprehend otherwise. I eventually because the kokoro care teacher in a way since I as they only one who spoke to kids about their feelings and was able to help them remove sensitive issues. It really all depends on if the school wants you to be purely immersive or if they see any value in you speaking Japanese. Some see any Japanese as detrimental to student’s practice time, where others don’t mind if you aren’t just throwing Japanese everywhere. I saw build a relationship with the staff at the school so they can see you as another teacher than just another classroom tool.
I typically try to use English as much as possible (insofar as they’ll understand me, anyway). Sometimes I’ll say something in English with Japanese thrown in for context/explanation as well.
Most of the kids try to talk in English when they come up to me, so I’m not going to rob them of the chance for English conversation, but if we reach the limit or they’ve had a long day and just want to use Japanese, I’ll meet them there too.
In class I’ll typically explain grammar, nuance, etc. in Japanese, unless it’s simple enough that English works. It doesn’t really help anyone to get an explanation they only half understand.
That teacher is an asshole.
Normally I say go with whatever your school says. As far as research goes, I think it mostly is a judicious use of native language to keep it within a certain bound is normally best. Allow kids to negotiate some meaning but don’t make it absurd. It’s really case by case. I know people who preach no Japanese like it some god given law of ideal language teaching. In some situation yeh, but we don’t normally deal with those situations. Teaching at some random JHS is not the same as running an immersion camp at Middlebury with highly motivated learners with a strong language aptitude. Even in DLI they aren’t full on target language in the beginning stages. The American ACTFUL (like JALT for America) normally uses a 90% rule. 90% in target language, 10% in shared language. This is not a hard and fast rule but covers most situations.
Multilingualism is important. It is a tested pedagogical practice because we know that 1. If a learner is comfortable speaking his mother tongue; 2. He will be more comfortable picking up a new one.
When I was teaching, I immediately knew that I wanted to occasionally either use or let them say certain things in Japanese. The main thing this achieves is make students comfortable, put them at ease.
Once they’re at ease, things are fun! I don’t really speak it fluently, but that’s ok! I would ask them to teach me! And they would laugh at my accent and pronunciation, and we would struggle together through English words.
Some tips: when teaching them something (ie colours), you say in English and ask them to match the word in Japanese. Then reverse it. You say it in Japanese, they say it in English.
I slowly introduced many new words by using them interchangeably with Japanese equivalents.
As an ALT I think it’s important to remember that you’re not there to just “speak English”, you’re an ambassador of culture and communication. Japanese public school English systems are not designed to produce English speakers, they’re designed to get students to pass exams. From our position as Assistants the only impact we can really have is to encourage and inspire students to study English more in the future. That plus we can make language learning more fun and approachable. I’ve met hundreds of kids who find English scary or “too hard”, so I think if using a little Japanese here and there makes them more comfortable with you, your lessons and English as a whole, then that’s what we should do. Teaching and learning a language isn’t just about remembering grammar and phonics, it’s about communication and expanding each other’s word view.
Edit: Oh, and I totally disagree with what that Japanese teacher did. But, I get it. They probably have a bit of an old fashioned mindset.
If you’re scared about losing your job then I would obey your masters.
The teacher who scolded her for speaking Japanese to you is an asshole.
Making you only accessible in English limits your students’ ability to interact with you, and there is no good reason to isolate students from you in this manner. In addition, doing this “others” you and gives the impression that foreigners are somehow separate and distant from Japanese. This creates a cultural rift, which paves the way for all kinds of prejudices to form.
This includes giving them the impression that “foreigners can’t speak Japanese” and “Japanese are different from foreigners.”
As an ALT you are limited in what you can do about this, but if I were you, I’d utterly ignore the edict not to speak Japanese to your students outside school hours. For one thing, the school has no jurisdiction over how you spend your free time when not at work. For another, you should do your utmpst to push back on the idea that it is somehow deleterious to the learners’ English education to speak to them in Japanese.
There is plenty of research that shows speaking to learners in their own language, particularly when they are beginners in an EFL context, actually motivates the learners and eases their anxiety.
If anyone is harming the students, it’s the teachers who are putting the bullshit idea into the students’ heads that foreigners can’t speak Japanese and must be treated differently from Japanese.
New ALTs are taught many impractical or outdated things, but one of the few true things they’re taught is ESID, every situation is different.
If you go in with an absolute mindset on something like speaking Japanese, you’re doing yourself and your students a disservice.
Obviously, you have to respect the wishes of your school and your teachers, within reason. One teacher I work with insists that I never speak Japanese in the classroom. Bluntly, they are an idiot, but I respect their wishes. Most other teachers I work with actively request that I use Japanese in the classroom, as I’m able to explain nuances, usages and intricacies that they can’t. I respect their wishes too.
In my opinion, the ideal teaching scenario is when English is used for classroom directions and activities, but specific complex information that requires a clear understanding is given in Japanese. Students should generally only be using Japanese themselves to ask clarifying questions.
Yes, it is possible to demonstrate successful all English classes, and ALT companies will show you videos of incredibly simple English being taught that way, but it’s asinine and doesn’t reflect the reality of almost any classroom above elementary school level.
People willing to die on the “All English” hill, please tell me how to convey the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs, in a way that is entirely clear to the viewer and doesn’t use English beyond JHS level. I guarantee you, whatever 10 minute frustrating mess you come up with will benefit your students far less than a concise 1 minute Japanese explanation followed by 9 minutes of putting the knowledge into practice.
Outside of the classroom, I mirror the students. If they speak English, I do. If they speak Japanese, I do. The fact that they know they can talk to me, ask me questions and have a laugh together outside of class is far more valuable in the long term than the English they might glean from a short forced English conversation. Insisting on English outside of class just turns you into the unapproachable foreigner nobody talks to, and that helps literally no one.
ALT situations are ESID, so it’s hard to say what’s acceptable, but you should definitely consider the teacher’s opinion (if they’re important to your position and not just some random teacher who has nothing to do with English).
I’ve been at many schools – although I’m not an ALT now, I’ve experienced:
– Schools where the previous ALT used Japanese and got into arguments with the students because of it. I was asked to pretend I didn’t understand Japanese at this school, and since I was not teaching solo, that was doable, but boring.
– Schools where the HRT would just read a book/do other work/NOT SHOW UP. This requires you to use Japanese at some point in your class, but it will probably not happen if you don’t have the Japanese skills to back that up.
– Schools where you’re meant to teach grammar in-depth. The other teacher is there, but only because they have to be by law. Here, too, because you don’t have the time to explain grammatical terms in English and have them memorize the English words for them (which wouldn’t help anyhow when the Japanese teacher just reverts to the Japanese terms), Japanese is key.
I’ve long since moved on to solo teaching at a private school, so I have no experience with the other types of situations that must be happening now with COVID and “gotta rush through the textbook, thanks ALT-san please stay in the teacher’s room” or whatever.
Use Japanese when needed to help them understand the lesson. Especially if its a grammar situation. Should I eventually learn enough Japanese, I will speak more of it to my students outside of classes.