Books/websites to learn vocab related to language-learning?

5 comments

1. Just use a dictionary and look those easy terms up.

   That said, if you are in an elementary-high school setting, you should be teaching in English and using simpler words if usual word not understood. Also, the grammar pieces are taught by Japanese teachers, not English natives. You shouldnt be in a position to be trying to explain grammar in Japanese to English learners.

2. Honestly, you should probably look into learning how to search properly. Of course “useful Japanese vocab for teaching English” isn’t going to give you what you are looking for. Something along the lines of “grammar terms japanese” would give you much better results.

   Here is a page that is pretty helpful: https://www.alse-net.com/column/grammar-terms.htm

3. I’ve been picking those up gradually by paying attention when the JTE explains the grammar points in Japanese

4. Sorry to be harsh, but if you are a teacher,
   shouldn’t you be able to teach such elementary matters without resorting to Google?

5. Generally speaking, it’s best to avoid using metalanguage as much as possible, other than some simple terms. I think parts of speech are fine, but I’d avoid “prepositional phrase” or anything else complex.

   It’s not useful for the learners to know such language as you can explain it using other words and by example. You just don’t need to refer to complex grammatical terms in order to teach it, and doing so can make learners feel grammar is so much more complicated and difficult than it really is.

   Also, always remember to always teach grammar in context and don’t present one single discrete grammar point as the main focus of the lesson, and then explain it using complicated grammatical terms, e.g., “Today we are going to study prepositional phrases. A prepositional phrase is …” then examples, and non-communicative grammar drills.

   That’s a mistake that a lot of beginner teachers make, so I thought it’s worth a mention just in case you are under the impression that is the way grammar should be taught since often the approach Japanese English teachers take.