Seems to be the most difficult trick to pull off. In my limited experience, about the only time students actually interact with English is in the class and maybe during homework. What are methods you’ve found effective in getting your students to have fun in English on their own?
I’ll put my own method in the comments.
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In my case, one trick I started last semester worked great. Since I use Let’s Go and that series has lots of material available free to download online including full CDs for the books, I used them to make videos of the songs tracks (including the tempo tracks) into a unit compilation for YouTube (yes, I know this pushes or goes beyond fair use). I then made a semester homework sheet with QR codes to the song videos and a spot for the parents to initial (important as many kids don’t get full internet access).
Each video is about 8 minutes long, and the kids watch it twice a week for three weeks as homework. At first we were worried this would be boring, but it has been working great. Kids know songs and do the tempo sentences with amazing pronunciation so in class we cover the material a lot, lot faster. I just have to fix the occasional phonetic mistake (Buh instead of Vuh, She instead of See, etc).
Given it’s worked so well, I’m slowly redoing the videos to make them more visual instead of a single image from the book. One downside is that this is still from an English study book even if it’s targeted to kids. I’m now tempted to also make a Peppa Pig or Bluey “homework” QR code sheet, themed or close to the material from the current unit for them to watch at home one or two times a week. I won’t upload anything, just link to whatever place seems to have the videos up for a long time. That’d be close to 30 minutes a week total of English immersion at home if it works out.
TL:DR – Make homework sheet of QR codes to link to videos to watch in English.
Music, films and tv. Usually recommend outside of lessons as I don’t set homework but get talking with the student, find what they like then find where it’s in English with Jpn subs if they needed.
My honest answer and I am really not trying to be sarcastic or anything…..this does not fall within my skill set/to heal. I teach the textbook, assist my JTE’s as best as I can between 8am and 4pm.
I make PowerPoint music videos that I play a month at a time, I just give them a lyric sheet, go through it one time and then just listen and sing. No demands that they learn the vocab or that they have to understand the entire song, just do it for fun and maybe some phrase will stick, or some sense that English can be fun will activate.
I have a moment during group sessions where we exchange recommendations between students. Recently people are watching Emily in Paris which I personally hate. But this is because they were planning to visit Paris in a few weeks.
This also has the added benefit that everybody knows that consuming English content is viewed as the norm so people apologise if they haven’t done anything in English recently.
I stopped coming up with ideas after the former JTE torpedoed nearly every idea I had- I was wasting time just by coming up with ideas.
I’m currently making a list of Youtube channels to share with students. The hope is to reach out to a few channels and get a couple video messages from a few creators on Youtube.
I’m also in the process of making a song for our school.
This might not fit the topic perfectly and it’s definitively Japanese media, and kinda falls into the “just slap a video on and sit in the back” territory, but when I was a teacher, kids really loved Eigolian えいごリアン (I think it’s a mix between eigo and alien). But those videos served as a really good entry into certain grammar points for a new unit and the kids genuinely enjoyed the change of pace and remained fairly engaged throughout. I’m talking elementary school here. There’s a bunch of videos on the NHK website, but I think there’s a more comprehensive list somewhere.
I found kids engaged with it and it did a good job of acclimatizing them to new grammar.
[https://www.nhk.or.jp/school/eigo/eigorian/](https://www.nhk.or.jp/school/eigo/eigorian/)
Then again, this material might be old at this point. I remember my BoE had a whole box set of the things.
Ask em to watch an English youtube video, a song or whatever they are interested in. Their youtube will then recommend more English stuff as well.
Compile a compilation of all Daffyd segments from *Little Britain*. They’ll like that.
The long term plan would be to get future OLs speaking the English with lilting Welsh accents; which would be the greatest thing ever.
Source: Our first proper date with my now-darling wife was spent explaining exactly *why* he is the only gay in the village.
For what purpose? I had a few advanced students who would go through media articles with me in class but people are allowed to read whatever news they want. I don’t think part of working in eikaiwa is trying to force feed such things.
TBH I prefer Japanese media anyway as it has far less polarising shit and more of the stories along the lines of ’25 year old girl quit her job as a lawyer in Tokyo to move home to Fukui and mass produce high-grade washi using her grandmother’s old kit’.
I have my private political opinions and read a lot of mainstream media on politics / current affairs. However I care less about it the older I get (and more about the small stuff). WTF would I tell an eikaiwa class about things like Ziolinsts & Hamas anyway? I can only consume so much analysis of such things and wouldn’t wanna use it in eikaiwa classes. Most of the people I know who used to focus on ‘analysing’ politics / current affairs were conspiracy theorists and the like with their own agendas.
They do interact with non-Japanese media, half of them listen to K-pop lol
Seriously, though, I don’t see that being a problem with my classes. I wish I could find a way to integrate whatever English-language material they’re interested in into class, but the JTEs all want to stick pretty close to the textbook, and most of the students couldn’t give two shits about Kota, Tina, Hajin, and Eri.