Japan's problems with Non-Japanese (Nurses)

Since I teach at a nursing college, some of my students tell me that they have discussed the topic of Non-Japanese (NJ) nurses coming into the country. I was curious about their thoughts so I asked some about their ideas. They generally answered that having NJ nurses would be a great way to alleviate some of the problems of a declining population of young people and a growing percentage of elderly. It would also be a great way for NJ nurses, who usually come from countries which don't have such high levels of medical care, to come and learn in Japan. I'm still not buying it. For two reasons; it isn't in the Japanese nurses' best interests, nor is it in the NJ's best interests.

First, it is union busting, put simply. If the motivations were alleviating demographic pressures or exchanging nursing technology for the betterment of the world, then the country would open its doors to all nurses and give them equal support for coming here. As it stands the country has made some deals with Indonesia and the Philippines, both countries with lower standards of living than Japan. Why don't they make deals with the US or European countries? They don't want to hire nurses that will actually expect higher wages.

Second, it isn't in the best interests of NJ nurses, because this country can't get its head around how it feels about NJ anybody. The police agencies put out posters that say, "Turn in suspicious foreigners." They stop random people on the street in Roppongi, clearly using racial profiling, and demanding urine tests. There are frequent reports of cops stopping NJ's while riding their bicycles, ostensibly so that the police can check to see if the bikes are stolen, and then grilling the riders on issues totally unrelated.

This country can't get its story straight about why they want to import nurses, and they can't get their feelings about NJ's together enough to either treat them as criminals and exile them all or welcome them as fellow citizens of the world.

English as medium of instruction in Asian countries

I have been following the discussions concerning the use of English as of medium of instruction in Malaysia and the Philippines for a while, and it raises some serious questions for me about the effectiveness of teaching a language in schools with communicative ability being the objective.

First you have the whole national identity problem to manage. In Malaysia English is the medium of instruction for Science and Math. Malay has been pushed aside in these two classes so that young people can learn English, the perceived lingua franca in those disciplines. People see that policy as a betrayal of their national identity.

In an article expressing support for the policy, the writer makes several erroneous statements. "Japan and South Korea, for example,  made great advance in the area of scientific and techonlogical development and innovation without having to impose the learning of English and other Western languages on their students," (English spelling errors the writer's). Japan and South Korea do impose the learning of English on their students. And though, "China did not have to depend on English to launch and develop its modern technological industry," "China made English compulsory in primary schools from Grade 3 in 2001, while big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have already introduced English at Grade 1. According to Graddol's research, an estimated 176.7 million Chinese were studying English in 2005 within the formal education sector," says the Asia Times.

I can also see where the writer is going with his recommendations, and none of it is going to lead to citizens who can function comfortably in the language. "Hence, I can appreciate the minister's shock as (at?) having English lessons in our schools without the proper teaching of the eight parts of speech of its grammar is certainly unsual and even outrageous." (my parenthesis, author's spelling of unusual) Sorry, but what are "the eight parts of speech? "The decline in our standard of English must be arrested fast. Making the language a compulory exam subject is perhaps the most significant major measure to do it." An appeal to fear. (with more misspelled words. Sentence fragment mine) "This is when they start learning English words, like "A for apple", "B for ball", etc."

This article catalysed some thoughts I have been having about language education, and helped me formulate a unified idea. It is that learning English for test taking purposes can be done in a traditional classroom setting, not very efficiently, but it can be done. If the objective is communicative ability, then the traditional classroom is inappropriate, and cannot fulfill its promises to the students, to the parents, or to society.

Positive Impact of Positive Comments by Anyone

It is an English teacher's ethical obligation to remain positive and foster positive "English image" in our students. I say that today for two reasons. One based on research in the field of language learning, and the other based on research in the medical field.

I was reading my tweets today, and a tweet from Blythe Musteric (@Blythe_Musteric) caught my eye. She had posted an blog entitled "Impact of negative comments on nonnative speakers in the workplace." The title is pretty self explanatory, but basically it says that impatient, negative coworkers can impair their non-native speaker colleagues' language ability by using negative language. The writer suggests that coworkers encourage their colleagues to improve, and uses a statement from Krashen as support.

Doubt and anxiety decrease a learner’s ability to process the language, creating a “mental block” for language learning. [Krashen, S. (1988), Second Language Acquisition and Second Language, Prentice Hall]

If we extrapolate from this, anything we as teachers do or say that increases the doubt and anxiety of our students should be avoided, and we are obliged to increase our learners' self confidence and secruity. We have the ethical obligation to create this kind of environment through the use of predictable outcomes, encouragement, and a curriculum that fosters language development.

Since I teach nurses, I wanted some more evidence from their field of expertise on the effects of positive beliefs. I found an article by Herbert Benson and Richard Friedman, from the Annual Review of Medicine, entitled," Harnessing the Power of the Placebo Effect and Renaming It 'Remembered Wellness.'" In it the writers suggests that the placebo effect gets positive results in 60-90% of cases which are enhanced by a.) positive beliefs and expectations by the patient, b.) positive beliefs and expectations by the health care professional, and c.) a good relationship between the parties.

This kind of research would be very useful in a language learning setting, where one class was left to their own beliefs about their learning and had no relationship with their teacher, and another class where all three of the factors were present, positive beliefs and expectation by the learner, by the teacher, and with good relationships between the two. My hypothesis is that the class with the positive beliefs and expectations and good relationships between teacher and student would perform better than the class with no such benefits.

I do not have data from such a study, but there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that it is the teachers ethical duty to remain positive him or herself, to help their students be positive about their outcomes, and to maintain good relationships.

Advanced topics class: Men's issues

Last night was the first night of a six-week series of advanced level classes at the Community College. I always struggle to keep this class fresh. The learners are all professional people with great English skills who want a place to talk about ideas. This time I happened to find that June is International Men's Month, so we'll spend at least three weeks discussing that.

There are two women in the class and five men, and what I realized in preparing for this class is that we often discuss topics that lead us in to women's issues, such as Equal Pay Day, and Equal Rights, but we have rarely, if ever, discussed what I would think of as men's issues. Last night we spent alot of time on men's health issues, such as suicide, prostate cancer, and heart disease and the social factors that make men more succeptible. They are a very insightful bunch and are willing to talk openly about sensitive issues, for example homosexuality. One man suggested that homosexuality was, "something wrong with their heads." I stifled my laughter the best I could, having never heard someone seriously opine that out loud. The other students did a great job, and instead of saying that there was something wrong with his, their take was, "So what if there is? It doesn't make them any more unworthy as people." Of course they tried to disuade him from his ideas, and in the end I think he was just saying that as a way of trying out that idea in his own head, not that he firmly believed it.

We talked about men having a hard time fitting into companies as functioning communities and the problems that makes when they retire. Community has been very important for people, especially farming people like the Japanese like to see themselves. Until recently the community for men has been the local area around where they lived and farmed. The students suggested that now the company has assumed that role for most men. That is fine until they retire from the company and that community disappears. In the past people didn't retire from where they lived, so their support group was intact when they hit old age. Now it just isn't there, and they may or may not be able to plug into a community that their wives have created.

A great group of students and inspiring conversation. Makes my late Tuesday nights worth it.

Game for past progressive: Stop what you're doing

Last night I had two night classes. In the first, the beginners' class, we played a game at the end of the period, after we had learned about past progressive, and it was a great success. I got the original idea from a book, but I embelisedhed it enough to say it's new.

I broke the class into two teams. Team A looked away from team B, and I showed B a card with a verb written on it. They were to act out that verb without using words until I said STOP. When they had frozen in the position they were in when I stopped them, A got a chance to look at their positions and guess what they had been doing. When they guessed, they had to use the construction:
They were __________ing.

I used these words:
surf
eat
brush your teeth
drive
wash dishes
watch TV
play tennis
hunt
box
study English
clean house
shop
play baseball
ride a train
fall
shower

It went very well, and we all had a great time acting out and guessing. They were all natural-born actors, and used their bodies to express the ideas in very imaginitive ways. Fall was great! The actors chose brilliant positions, but the other team couldn't guess what they were doing. The actors eventually got tired out from holding the positions, so they sat down while the other team tried to guess, which they eventually did. I thought watch TV would be very hard, but they guessed that one right away.

Lots of fun for these hams.

Michelle Obama's address to WMST High School's Graduating Class

I was impressed by Michelle Obama's address to the graduating class of Washington Math Science Technical High School, because I have a son of my own preparing for university, and because I teach at one and see so many students letting their time and considerable talents slip away. I went back to collect the main suggestions she had so that I can share them more easily with my son and students.

• Here are her suggestions:
• You are responsible for your own experiences.
• Own your voice. Be an engaged, active participant.
• Raise your hand that first day. Ask a question.
• Don't be afraid to be wrong. Don't be afraid to sound unclear.
• Get to know your professors. Introduce yourself. Attend their office hours.
• Be in their face.
• Get them to clarify anything you don't understand; that's their job.
• Open yourselves up to the entire college experience.
• Make new friends.
• Learn about others' cultures and experiences.
• Get to know people who aren't like you.
• Try some classes that sound intimidating.
• Learn a language.
• Read lots of books.
• Travel.
• Challenge your mind to embrace the diversity of the world you live in.
• Let people know you.
• Remember graduation day.
• Get to work.

iPhones May Help Japanese University Catch Absent�Students - Chronicle.com

In the absence of any meaningful study and/or assessment capability for their lame mass production/mass consumption education options, universities take to high-tech spying on their students to check whether they are in class or not. This is a brilliant condemnation of their own academic standards when they show that simply putting a body in a chair while someone stands in front of them and talks is good enough to get college credit. This is a sad day for college education for the following reasons.

And if they aren't in class, so what?
If they aren't in class, if the student decides that today they will bag class, does that mean that the university will collect the data on where they actually are? Will this information later end up in a portfolio somewhere so that it can be used against them when they run for public office? "Remember that one day when you were absent from class? Well we happen to know that you were at a drug rehab clinic on that day, so if you want to get votes give us money." Will we be asked to trust that the information will not be used in that way? Are you insane?

And if they were in class, so what?
So let's say they were in class with their high-tech spy ware. Does that mean that they are actually absorbing any of the information coming out of the person's mouth that is standing 100 yards way? Does that mean that they couldn't be getting more on the subject by digging through the library and researching it themselves? Will they get a better grade on the test because they were there, or could they just as easily study with friends and books?

Student learning research suggests than an entertaining lecture is not necessarily good teaching. Despite being entertained, students may not have learnt anything. Deep approaches to learning are more likely to be enhanced through a combination in the lecturer of explanatory skills and certain communicative qualities. These qualities include the lecturer's ability to interact with students in ways which encourage involvement, commitment and interest (Bliss & Ogborn, 1977). Other important factors include the lecturer's ability to act from a student-centred position, to respect students and to provide individual guidance (Ramsden, 1988a).

• Bliss, J. & Ogborn, J. (1977) Students' Reaction to Undergraduate Science, London: Heinemann.
• Hodgson, V.E. (1984) 'Learning from Lectures' in F. Marton et al (eds) The Experience of Learning, Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
• Ramsden, P. (1988a) 'Context and Strategy: Situational differences in learning', in R. R.. Schmeck (ed) Learning Strategies and Learning Styles, New York: Plenum.

How do they know that they are in class anyway, even after spying on them?
So does it mean that by giving out these gizmos that they will be able to confirm attendance accurately? No.

Administrators at the university acknowledge that students could give their iPhones to classmates to sign in for them, but say the young men and women are not likely to part with their mobile devices.

Come on. If they give students new phones, they will still have the phones that they had before they arrived on campus. Their lives don't begin on the day they step foot on the college green. They were high school students before, and their friends have their phones, and all their phone numbers and email addresses are already stored in their previously owned cells. No one could pry my old trusty cell phone out of my fingers, but I would certainly be able to work out a deal with a friend to carry my i Phone in with hers from time to time while I studied with a hot cup of coffee in the comfortable chairs in the library.

Instead of delivering well planned learning opportunities for students, which would include the best learning opportunities the school can offer, access to learning support, and essential assessment, these schools are settling for the lowest common denominator, attendance, and attaching free high-tech gadgets as a way of wiggling out of their responsibility. Ask yourself whose interests this program serves. Our kids'? Ours as parents? Teachers? Society's? Macintosh and college administrators getting a little on the side for their decisions?

Keep your spying paws off my kids and give them the education they are paying for.

Wired Campus: iPhones May Help Japanese University Catch Absent�Students - Chronicle.com

English Logs 2.0

From the beginning of last year, my students have been using what I call English Logs. The are notebooks where the students record their evaluations of and reactions to the class. In addition they include a one-line journal where students write about themselves and their activities in brief entries that can only take up one line in their notebook.

The format that I have asked student to use is as follows. It is an adaptation of the format Duane Kindt has posted on his site. http://www3.nufs.ac.jp/~kindt/pages/actionlogs.html.

Class date:                         English Target:
             English Used:
(1= not much,  2 = OK,  3 = good  4= Very) 
     DID             Interesting      Useful         Difficult
1.
2.
3.
4.
2) One line journal
 /
 /
 /
 /
 /
3) Comment: 



The students are expected to write about their class and their personal lives for five days out of seven a week. In the top section they are expected to copy the day's class plan from the blackboard and then evaluate each point as interesting, useful or difficult. I also expect them to write one comment in the comment section. That will earn them average mark of 7.5 points out of 10. They can earn higher marks by asking questions, elaborating on responses, and drawing pictures that are connected with their class work or personal lives.

These are the objectives of the basic English logs.
1. frequent writing
2. frequent feedback on learning
3. communicate with teacher in English about topics of immediate concern to the students
4. recursive practice with commonly occurring vocabulary
5. provide a venue for discussing class work

Students are also asked to draw in their logs for several reasons.
1. Drawing is a way of showing relationships between things and ideas that do not necessarily involve words, though students incorporate words in their drawings.
2. Drawing is another method of involving more of the students' intelligences.
3. Student drawing is another opportunity for students to be praised for something that they produce. Praise enhances intrinsic motivation and perseverance. It is easy to praise students for their drawings.

The idea of "English Logs 2.0" is to add another dimension to the logs. The original logs were only seen by me and the owner of the log, though sometimes students share the contents of their logs and what I have written. The 2.0 comes from Web 2.0. I first considered using some kind of social networking service, something like Facebook or Twitter, in order to manage students' work, but discovered several problems.
1. Nothing could manage the formatting of this kind of template.
2. Nothing would accomodate students' drawings without advanced posting techniques that I do not want to use valuable class time to teach.
3. Limited computer access, especially at class time, when there are computer classes scheduled, leaving me with no access.
4. Avoid possible problems with uninvited guests.

I ask students to exchange their log with another student in the class for one week. The borrower writes their entries into the owner's book as they would normally write in their own, commenting on the owner's work or on comments or questions that I have written. On the regular submission day, the students submit their borrowed log, and I read the entries as I normally would. On class day I return the logs to their owners. They have the logs for a week, and the process is repeated.

My students have tried this for several weeks, and have been pleased with the results so far. I will write more updates.