I’ve been in Japan teaching for roughly 2 years now, and MAAAAAAAAAN, I don’t know how much my own experience reflects those of others in the country, but how do you guys feel about how English is taught here?
It’s very much compartmentalized, and I feel as though it doesn’t do a great enough job of making sure that the children (ES in my case) understand the basics of the English language and have a steady foundation before moving on to learning more practical applications and uses of the language that will/would relate to the everyday lives and talking about themselves. Even more-so, I feel as though a lot of the Japanese teachers in my case have some irrational fear of teaching them anything useful if it’ll deviate from what they know and the textbook. For example, as one of my JTEs was teaching a few of the students the alphabet and getting them used to memorizing them, I asked if she had any further intentions of perhaps having them practice writing them too, or learning their phonics as well, to which she responded “Well, no. Why would I do that?” And I was just kind of like “Uhh… ‘cause it’s important?”
Like I remember learning Spanish and all of teachers made sure that I learned and understood the alphabet & phonics of the language first and foremost before I even attempted ANYTHNG else, and as a result I was able to truly read, write, and speak the language as intended.
There’s more to it here and there, but the basic gist of my question is, how do you guys go about accepting that the difficulties associated with attempting to teach the actual foundations due to pushback from the teachers you work with as well as the general “feeling” that most SEEM to have about learning/speaking English here? Like they’re more into having the appearance of speaking the language rather than properly being able to do so. (And this isn’t a ‘new’ thing to me whatsoever, just gets more ridiculous to see the longer I do this.)
by Rald123