I’ve recently been asked to not use any Japanese in the classroom when teaching my classes. Kids are aged 4-9, study for 1 hour once a week, and essentially speak **no** English, and do not understand **any** instruction made in English. We use the textbooks Magic Time and Super Kids.
Initially, I taught in only English, but this was incredibly isolating, the kids didn’t understand or retain any information, they didn’t interact with me, they acted up a lot, and we all hated the class. It really affected my mental health, so I just started giving instructions and explaining words/grammar in Japanese. Now, we all have so much fun, and the kids are coming back each week remembering everything from the weeks prior. They smile now, when before they literally cried. They respect me as a teacher and are happy to see me each week, and I feel like we see each other as people now that we actually communicate.
Basically, I’ve been told by one manager the school’s rule is absolutely no Japanese. I explained the above situation and they agreed with me, and I essentially said I’m not willing to return to English-only classes because they were so mentally draining. But, it’s likely the head honcho won’t be okay with it. I work other jobs that I love and I have no problem leaving here I must.
I just wanted to know how does everyone feel about English-only classes for these textbooks, and at this level/age group/frequency of study? Do you agree with English-only education? *Should* I be teaching in only English from an effectiveness POV? Do you also feel isolated when you can barely communicate with your students?
Looking forward to seeing how people see this! 🙂
21 comments
In theory, I favor the no Japanese method. However, for my lessons, I always give the objective and directions for any activities in Japanese. The activity is where I want them to use English, and I absolutely do not allow the L1 to be used. If they understand what is expected of them, the chances of success are much higher.
your title is confusing
Sounds like eikaiwa. If that is the case, your job is to keep the kids busy while mom is off shopping. If they pick up a few English words, great. If not, mom still gets to say she is paying for “education”.
i always tell parents that I will decrease the amount of japanese as the years go by. a student who starts at age six will be hearing japanese quite a bit, but by the time they are 12, almost not at all. it’s perfect to me.
A lot of English schools in Japan don’t have any concept of how SLA actually works. It’s actually more beneficial to scaffold beginners with the L1 because otherwise students cannot attach meaning or context to what you’re saying and will get frustrated. They may argue that the students are young enough to learn via immersion, but this is a little more difficult to apply in a school setting with children, especially if their classmates all share the same L1. Japan is really old school when it comes to teaching approaches, and this is just another archaic idea that held over. I teach JHS and SHS and I use Japanese when I really need to because otherwise we are just wasting time and English is actually becoming an obstacle at the point. It’s annoying that Japan thinks explaining/translating something into Japanese is “cheating.” They don’t view Japanese as facilitative in any way to learning English, when in fact it’s been proven that using the L1 can help a lot. Sigh.
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My guess is that they really want to take advantage of the critical period when its easiest to soak up second languages, but there are still limits for what a group of beginners can achieve when they’re not fully immersed in the language. If there’s too much information being thrown at them, then they’re just going to shut down which is what you experienced.
IMHO It’s completely unrealistic to expect kids of any age to just get it from one hour of ‘immersion’ a week.
I’ve taught young learners on and off for years now and I’ve found that this approach hardly ever works.
Especially if you need to control misbehaving kids.
Ideally we want to use as much English as possible but the trick is finding the right balance and a good routine can help with that.
For example repeating a certain game means that by the second or third time they play it they should know the rules so you can switch to explaining them in basic English.
Sorry that your manager won’t let you use Japanese but could you just not pretend to them that you aren’t? I used to do that years ago in my Eikaiwa job.
It’s highly unlikely that they’ll find out.
I used to ascribe to comprehensible input. But I forgot about the comprehensible part, which is actually far more in important than the input part.
The guy who came up with the theory recently said in an interview “we learn language in one way, when we understand it”
Understanding is key. Input alone is completely useless. So if your students can’t understand you, it’s not going to be very effective. I think alot of people who have never spoken a second language fluently ascribe to some the idea that input equals proficiency.
But honestly if you willing to quit just use some limited Japanese when you need and don’t go put of your way to let your boss know.
A lot of what I have read says that it is not helpful to limit a student’s use of their native language when learning a new one. However, many customers want to maximise the amount of English being used, as they are paying a lot for this experience which they struggle to find outside of the classroom. Secondly, it is wrong to believe that students are only learning what you explicitly teach them. They may be picking up incidental language, even if it just exposure to your pace and intonation and the way you respond to situations. Additionally, by sticking to only English, you are presenting the students with the problem of needing to use English in order to achieve a goal. The hope is that by taking what they have learnt and trying to manipulate it and apply it in context they will learn more deeply. However I have generally found that Japanese students are not good at this, and will just want to know what they are expected to say so they can say it. Finally, I have seen a lot of teachers who overestimate their Japanese ability and end up miscommunicating, or worse, using the lesson as a chance to use their Japanese. So I can understand why companies put a rule on it.
My approach is to not ban Japanese in the class, and to use it occasionally for explanation and instruction, but to try to minimise it while keeping everything I mentioned in mind. I think the most important thing is to first equip your students with the tools to deal with unfamiliar language. Teach them “What’s this?”, “I don’t know”, “how do you say **** in Japanese?” “Can you write it?” Etc. And I believe you will have many more positive learning experiences.
Edit: typos
Regardless of textbook, I think you need to choose your language based on your learners.
That said, with “ESL” education, it is quite possible to teach everything in the target language on English.
That said using EFL methods which incoporate the mother tongue can be much faster and easier.
Personally I favor using Japanese where the instructions would be too cumbersome to communicate in English, and think that it is especially important for communicating important points to learners who only have very minimal time learning English. (= The benefit from immersion will not outweigh the amount of time lost to convey everything in English)
When I was at eikaiwa and dealing with 1-6 kids in a class I would try to use English as much as possible. However, if you have a four year old and you show them a calendar with a picture of a moon on it standing in for 月曜日 and then saying Monday and kid simply doesn’t understand because they cannot make the connection for whatever reason. Then it is far faster to just say it in Japanese so they get an idea of what you are talking about and then proceeding from there with the lesson in English again.
I learnt that the hard way when I was brand new and I had a student who just couldn’t understand that I was talking about the days of the week for 10-15 minutes since a Monday is not a physical object like a ball or a car and flash cards given to me by the school just weren’t cutting it.
I think it goes without saying, most people don’t know enough Japanese to converse so they are stuck teaching in English. Don’t forget that
There no ‘should’ here. There is no one valid way to teach
That being said English only class rooms work, especially with young kids, but it is hard to pull off 1 hour per week for sure.
Ultimately what it comes down to is that you are paid to deliver a curriculum. It’s not your job to fight the curriculum, that falls to (ideally) people with expertise in the matter, not ASLs
But yeah honestly if you can’t get with it, and have other financial support that it won’t hurt you, just let them know you are not a good fit.
In the end it may turn out that their curriculum doesn’t work, but that’s not your responsibility. And no curriculum will ever work if the teacher is not buying in.
I currently teach a class of 7-year-olds using Magic Time. And, yeah, I don’t use any Japanese at all. However, I have small classes . We’re capped at 8, but this class in only 5.
Also, I have proper TEFL training and certification. If you’ve never been properly trained and are trying to teach the way you were taught in middle/high school, that’s gonna suck. These textbooks are possible to teach in the way you describe, but you have to just demonstrate. Don’t explain grammar. Demonstrate it and ask super simple CCQs. For example, if you’re teaching “draw with me,” you demonstrate by drawing and getting them to draw. Then you start shaking hands and say “Draw with me?” Then laugh and say “No!” while shaking your head.
You have to go extremely slow. No more than two pages per week. And everything needs to be “show, not tell.” You have to be comfortable acting a bit silly to get your points across. And you have to be comfortable with the occasional look of bewilderment around the room.
You are correct in the way you are teaching. Total immersion, particularly in an EFL context, is not as effective as it is often made out to be. There are studies that support (limited) use of the first language in teaching, particularly at lower levels.
You are right to quit. It’s impossible to get kids’ attention and respect if you can’t communicate with them. This is why so many teachers struggle to control their class, and have discipline problems.
But you should also know that the total immersion theory is pushed in many teaching contexts in Japan, because 1) they don’t know any better; and 2) the school wants to create an illusion for the learner that the teacher cannot speak Japanese. You’ll run into this problem again and again, most especially if you continue to work in eikaiwa.
Unless the school you work for starts teaching English to kids aged 0-2 it’s kinda stupid to implement such a rule. It’s very difficult for kids to learn a new language when they already have a developed sense of their mother-tongue. The school I work for is a daycare & kindergarten hybrid, and most of our kids come when they are babies so they develop both languages.
We have a strict no Japanese rule as well, but for kids started in the kindergarten class (ago 3 and up) I speak Japanese and English so they can connect the two languages. It better than to leave a kid confused and possible petrified of English
Emmersive English is powerful and effective way to teach language.
Pardon my colorful language, but it doesn’t fucking work in a one hour a week kid’s class.
IT. DOESN’T. FUCKING. WORK.
sounds like the manager is promising something to parents that does not have a solid foundation in effective teaching.
prep your resume and be ready to find someone to work for that knows what they are doing.
About the no Japanese in class, its stupid and imo entirely a farce made up by the eikaiwa industry to sell “immersion” and “native experience”. Its fucking stupid, in my opinion of course. Should we be teaching in English only (especially when you are often tasked with controlling a class of wild, piss pants’d kids)? No. Is it possible to do without speaking Japanese? Absolutely. Its just not the best option. English only environments work for places like international schools where the kids are speaking English only for almost all hours everyday of the week. I feel that in the 1 class every week or two area, Japanese can be used as a stepping stone to get kids to understand commands in English.
You could always suggest that the school provide a Japanese assistant to help wrangle the lil runts. You can try to work together to get the kids on track for understanding classroom behavior and jargon in English.
Is there another teacher in the room that ratted you out? If not, how the hell did they know you were using Japanese aside from using it during an observation? Honestly, As much as you care for the kids and their learning, YOUR well being is more important than a job you can comfortably leave. GTFO and pay it no mind.
O dude that 100% English thing is fucking retarded.
For any of my students under 13 I teach 70% in Japanese
From JHS I start to gauge how much Japanese to use based on the level.
The thing is I have high school students who passed EIKEN pre-1 and we still speak Japanese sometimes, it just helps them feel more comfortable…and students who are comfortable study much better.