EFL in Japan

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

2009-10-30T10:03:00.000+09:00

Today and yesterday we are doing a scavenger hunt with a Halloween theme in class. The students get ten questions, and have to find the answers which are posted outside along a trail through a bamboo grove. They get treats at the end. Here are the questions I used.

1. When did Halloween start?

2. Who started it?

3. A pumpkin with a face cut in it is called a __________?

4. Children dress up in _________________.

5. They go around the neighborhood. That’s called ________________.

6. Jack tricked ___________________.

7. Pumpkins were first used in ______________________.

8. Halloween comes from a combination of 3 words; _______________ ________________ _______________

9. Western ghosts have __________________.

10. A house where ghosts live is said to be ____________________.

Number nine may be a little tough to answer. Western ghosts have feet. Japanese ghosts are said not to have feet.

Use (English) education to fight terror

2009-10-26T11:14:00.001+09:00

A Pakistani editorial promotes the use of education, with English as the medium, to help young people lift themselves up out of environments that promote violence as a tool for social change.

内容:

"Use education to fight terror"
- Pakistan Observer - Newspaper online edition - Article （Google サイドウィキで表示）

Japan's Centralized Education System is Becoming Unsustainable.

2009-10-23T15:31:00.001+09:00

Japan's huge, unwieldy, education bureaucracy is too large to make even the most fundamental decisions, and the Ministry of Education issues proclamations without concrete follow-through programs of training, initiation, or evaluation. Elementary school level English classes start with no follow through. Nursing schools are now supposed to offer more rounded curricula to reflect the number of graduates who are employed outside the health care field, but with no hint about how they should do that and still ensure their grads pass their national boards.

Decentralization is the only answer for solving these issues and many others, including the number of children who refuse to go to school at all.

内容: asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：EDITORIAL: Decentralizing education - English （Google サイドウィキで表示）

Australia Boosts Funding for Language Education

2009-10-22T13:38:00.001+09:00

Even in these troubled economic times, Australia seems to know which way the wind is blowing, and offering more funding for language education in schools.

内容:

"The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, today announced funding of $46,000 through the School Languages Program (SLP), to extend and update the 2005-2008 National Statement and Plan for Languages Education in Australian Schools."
- Australia Invests in School Languages Programs | The Gov Monitor （Google サイドウィキで表示）

Learning Often Takes a Backseat in English Class

2009-10-17T09:38:00.000+09:00

As a teacher in a fact-to-face classroom, you will meet learners who are only nominally interested in learning English. They will come to class religiously, participate faithfully, and take notes earnestly, but their language ability may not improve. Here is why.

This is their time. They have left work, taken care of their families early, or otherwise prepared themselves and have generated enough motivation to carry tmemselves to your class. They are there for reasons that you may not be able to fathom, but it doesn't matter.

They may not learn anything.

Your learners may be with you every week for years and never make any progress. They may even lose language ability over time.

They are multidimensional beings.

These people may appear to be flat and dull, but they are each dramatic, multidimensional beings that happen to intersect at your class once a week at a certain time. You know next to nothing about what happens otherwise, and it doesn't matter, because you will be with them for the next hour.

They may dissappear without warning.

These ephemeral beings may decide to exit your time just as easily as they entered, and you will never know why. The good news is that they may flit back into your class, again with no explanation.

Your class is a social outlet in addition to what you are offering as a subject.

People come to your class initially to learn English. They end up creating relationships. We get them to talk about their lives, so they make connections with others. Some of them will take their relationships outside the classroom. They may want to include you in their plans. A few of them will connect in lasting ways.

Some may actually pursue language.

As strange as it may seem after all of this, some will actualy pursue language learning and will include you in on their achievements and failures. They'll go abroad, take tests, apply for new jobs, and put themselves in positions where they have to use their language skills.

Learners will come to you initially because they want or need to be ale to communicate in English. It's hard work, but one thing that will keep them coming back is the relationlships they have made with others in the class.

Your relationship with these people is complex, not a simple giver/receiver arrangement. Enjoy the dynamic dance, the comings, the goings, the connecting and growth that comes with the learning in your class.

"I feel as though I am not Japanese"

2009-10-12T16:05:00.000+09:00

This comment, "'I feel as though I am not Japanese,' she says, because she is able to understand the English speech so well," comes from an article in the NY Times, Obama becomes Japan's English teacher , about how "President Obama's Inaugural Address" has become a huge hit among the English learning population of Japan.

It is also indicative of one of the mind viruses that infects people here, the I'm-Japanese-so-I-can't-learn-another-language virus.

She needs some positive role models, like the folks in my Tuesday night classes.

Japan 11 Universities in The Times Higher Education QS World University Rankings 2009

2009-10-09T10:59:00.000+09:00

Rankings help give people, perspective students, parents, tax payers, and investors an opportunity to compare institutions, but I wonder if they also may not lead to complacency, as politicians and administrators can point to movement in their charts as evidence for superior management or conversely, evidence of the need for more investment.

Japan universities seem to be improving, I mean if you ask the people at The Times Higher Education. This evaluation seems to be heavily weighted in favor of publications, and my guess is that it strongly favors research done in English. It includes scores based on peer review, employer review, staff/student, citiations, international staff, and international students.

"These countries have invested heavily in higher education in recent years, and this is reflected in the improved quality in their top institutions." Wonder where this heavy investment might be seen? I also wonder where this investment might be coming from, industry, government?

"They have also attempted to internationalise their universities by hiring more faculty from overseas ... this helps to improve their visibility globally." Is this where the investment is going, to hire faculty from overseas? It begs the question, why are researchers having to be imported? What systemic problems exist that make it necessary to import scholars, and are these barriers to domestic growth evaluated by The Times?

"These universities have also stressed the importance of their professors publishing in international journals, which has no doubt increased the visibility of their research." Publishing has always been one of those things academics do, but how does it help students? I've heard the arguments, and it may work in some cases, but it fails utterly in others.

At best these rankings can be used by people faced with short-term decisions about how to invest their money or which schools to apply for this Fall, but in the long run, they do not address long term solutions about how university education can be improved.

Will the Web dismember universities?

2009-09-17T14:27:00.000+09:00

An article caught my eye the other day which claimed that, "The Web will dismember universities, just like newspapers." When I tweeted the article, I got several replies, most suggesting that would be the case, with some suggesting the sooner the better. A few suggested that they hoped that it didn't happen too soon, because they were employed at universities.

My prediction is that it will not be an either/or solution. The web will dismember the features least suitable to a modern world, namely the cattle-call lecture. My Chemistry lecture at university deserved to be dismembered. A doddering research scientist with no concern at all for the 200 or so people gathered in front of him droned on about this and that, and the work of organizing laboratory classes and exams was left to his grad student slaves. As interesting and important as chemistry probably is, this should have been a rewarding experience. Instead it was torture four days a week.

At the end of the semester I went to the administration with my opinions since those were the days before course evaluations. The prof had no business in front of a class, and he was an embarrassment to the university. They agreed, and said they knew he was a terrible teacher, but he was a brilliant researcher, so they were going to keep him on staff, and the rules said that faculty members had to teach this class periodically. There it was. The students at that university were periodically robbed, and as years went on protests about this professor increased in volume.

Best case scenario, these kinds of lectures will be offered on line, with lab classes offered at various times and days during the week at the university. This gives the university the opportunity to present stimulating experiences that benefit everyone.

As I consider my own field, language education, the Internet will have a similar effect; it will replace mundane lecture style teaching, and offer a variety of options to suit the needs of more learners, but it will not entirely replace face-to-face college learning entirely for the following reasons.

1. Students don't attend classes because they want to learn.

Learning, a language for example, may be one of learners' motivations for attending a class, online or not, but it certainly isn't the only one. Learner motivations are complex and very difficult to qualify or quantify. Students have shown repeatedly that, though they may want to learn language, they want to do it in a setting that allows them to gather with other people and enjoy the social aspects of language learning.

Sorry, but the middle-aged male prof was not the object of my 19-year-old attention as we were learning Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric." My attention was devoted to the woman in front of me and practicing, "The love of the Body of man or woman balks account." A monitor doesn't do that justice.

2. The Internet cannot support the level of trust required in relationships that can be made at traditional universities.

Universities are an important part of building relationships of trust, and unfortuntely the Internet, though it allows people to form relationships, does not afford the same level of trust. Student/student, student/faculty relationships that will lead directly or indirectly to employment opportunities for students would be very difficult to cultivate online. These very personal relationships are especially important in the Japanese setting, and to a lesser degree in the US setting.

Relationships on a more collegial level also develop over time between faculty and students. That would be very difficult with the part-time, virtual professors. That is evident now with part time teachers at universities. They are paid to be in class, not to grade exams, not to be available to students outside of class, and certainly not for lengthy talks about their disciplines.

3. Going off to college affords young people with opportunities and an excuse to go away from their families, friends, and surroundings. Their migration also helps parents move their young adult children out of the home.

In some cases that means that people go to another country to study, an opportunity that would be very difficult without being a student. In Japan and the US at least, a visa for a long-term stay is difficult to obtain without a reason. While working on a student visa in the US is not legal, it is in Japan, which gives international students the opportunity to study and work in the country at the same time.

Some kinds of arrangements could be made and the world could change in ways that would remedy these situations, but for the near future, universities have roles to play. Higher education must evolve to better meet the needs of learners. I refer specifically to the mammoth lecture paradigm which best serves the bean counters' needs.

Remote Lectures and classes are a profitable reality in Japanese cram schools, where charismatic teachers train students to succeed in entrance exams. College should be more than that, and online learning has significant limitations which universities better learn to capitalize on.

On President Obama's Speech on Education

2009-09-12T11:42:00.002+09:00

I support Pres. Obama and the contents of his speech, but I would prefer that he had not sought to have it broadcast at schools. My reasoning is as follows.

1. He is setting a precedent for other politicos to beam messages at our kids. Senators, governors, sheriffs, and city council members will now think they have the right.

2. This time I agree with the message and showed my kids the speech afterward, but what if it were W drumming up support for his war on terror/drugs/illegal immigrants/freedom of thought or whatever? He was president, too.

3. School is a place to teach kids what they can't get other places. Teach them what they need to be taught and let them go. I reserve the right to educate my children what doesn't need to be taught at school. More time in school doesn't mean better learning. Of OECD nations, American children spend the most number of hours in school, and look at the results.

Twitter Follow Fridays: A blog version

2009-09-11T17:14:00.000+09:00

This is @yokkaichi1, and at this posting I have 723 tweets on Twitter. At first it was hard to warm up to, probably because I wasn't interacting with people. Now that I am interacting, and have found people who post ideas that resonate, I find it an indispensable part of my professional life.

Follow Fridays have always been something of a chore, and after reading Did @PhilBaumann Just Save Follow Friday?, I have decided to put my Follow Friday recommendations here.

@FarmerPhil, @Kalinagoenglish, @gilesmitchell, @parkhills, @barbsaka, @SugarJo, @cecilanobre, @claytoniantomb, @palmerve, @TheEngTeacher, @englishraven, @CotterHUE

I read so many more, but if you are looking to get started, here is a list of a few of the tweeters I couldn't do without.

Getting ready for writing class: considerations

2009-09-06T13:46:00.000+09:00

In the second semester every year I have a ESL writing class, and traditionally around ten students sign up for it. There is also traditionally a 20% drop rate. In trying to make the class as rewarding for the students these are my considerations and how I intend to meet them this year.

Writing for fluency
Writing for accuracy
Writing for organization
Writing for real purposes
General English general language development

Writing for fluency is a skill most of the students who enroll know very little about. Schools stress accuracy, with volume as an after thought. Neither of these is fluency. Writing fluency is writing with an high interest in communication and a low focus on accuracy. Most writing in schools is on the word level, writing words in spaces in test mode. Students may write on the sentence level, but rarely longer in any language. If there is any focus at all on longer pieces, the one who writes the most words with the fewest "errors" is the winner. At the beginning of class no one knows how to start just writing their ideas without paying attention to, for example, spelling. Here are two activities that I use for fluency.
1. Oneword (as in oneword.com)oneword.com
The students get a word and the write about or with the word for one minute. I use three different words and use this activity as a warm-up.
2. Blacken the page
The students get a lined half sheet of B5 paper, and they fill it up with their writing based on a topic that I give them or on any topic that I give them.

With both of these activities I have problems at the beginning with students who have "nothing to write about." By the end of the semester they have plenty to write about.

Writing for accuracy is something the students are used to, and is the consideration that I spend the least time on. At the beginning of the course they are much more aware of this than anything they want to actually communicate, and their fear of error blocks most anything interesting they have inside them. In the world of word processors, most of what they have to worry about is remedied by the software, spelling, and strange grammar. I focus the entire course on two points, punctuation and capitalization. Since the learners have almost no experience writing beyond the sentence level, they often don't know how to punctuate. They are also confused as to the rules of capitalization, and their first works come out looking like German, with all the nouns in caps. They rarely use grammar that is complex enough to need attention, but when they ask me directly for how to write something in English I help them with acquiring that pattern.

Writing for organization is an interesting cultural awareness issue connected with writing. Students' awareness of organization comes almost entirely from the reading they have done in their L1, and their understanding of it is passive. When you point out to them how a written passage of Japanese is organized, they have their first "Aha moment." Their second comes when we compare that with a passage written in English. The same message is repeated three times, an idea that learners think has to be wrong. When you point out that messages are repeated three times in Japan, like on NHK news and on announcements on the train, then they have something to latch onto and use.

Writing for real purposes is something the learners are very self-conscious about in the beginning. They are not used to seeing their own words in print, and they have a very hard time commenting on other's work. Writing for real purposes also included writing in a real setting, which includes collaboration. Scholars work with other scholars on drafts of their work. Written reports in companies are reviewed and commented on for rewriting by coworkers. However most school students' work is done by the learners alone, for the teachers, and maybe others will see it during open houses at school or when they take their work home at the end of term. Recently students have been using Japanese writing more since email and texting have become so popular with the advent of the cell phone, but English writing is almost entirely done in testing circumstances, and almost never read or commented on by anyone other than the teacher. In my class students are party to any writing, formal and informal, that is done in class. Informal writing assignments include their English Log 2.0, and fluency exercises. Formal writing assignments include a self introductory piece, an introduction to their home town, their favorite recipe, and a piece on one of their special interests. These are all written and rewritten cooperatively, and finally published with a copy for everyone.

General English language ability improvement is another goal of the writing class. Since all of the communication in class should be done in English, this makes the writing class truly a four-skills class. They will be reading passages similar to the ones they will write. They will read their work and the work of other learners. They will talk about their writing and about other's, and listen to classmates talk about themselves and their writing.

Course Evaluations: Reasons, Methods, Meanings

2009-09-01T09:57:00.000+09:00

Course evaluations have been an important part of my professional growth for around fourteen years. The reason that I started using them had less to do with growth than with self preservation, but over the years the process has become an integral part of development as a teacher. I use them for nearly all of my classes, and while they are only one part of my own development scheme, they provide a wealth of information.

About fourteen years ago I was employed by Prefectural University of Kumamoto as an English teacher, and my relationship with the school had become confrontational. They were discriminating against their non-Japanese teachers, and some of us had started the process of seeking redress. One of my students told me one day that an administrator from the school had stopped him one day and asked him about how I use English in my classroom, and whether I use Japanese. Their crooked thinking was obvious, they were going to use that information grounds to criticize my ability to teach. They could use that in several ways. They could say that using Japanese, which I use in class now as I did then, was inappropriate for an English class. They could say that not using Japanese in class was inappropriate. They could criticize my language ability. The only way for me to be sure that I was doing the right thing was to make sure that my practices had a grounding in teaching theory, and ask my students about it, so at the end of that semester I started using course evaluations. I have each and every one that I have asked my students to write since then, which is a considerable stack by now. They are a valuable reference on my teaching, and a shield against unfounded criticisms.

I have found that there are some valuable methods for setting up an evaluation in order to get the best information. I use statements with which students agree, disagree, or choose a response in between.

Use a 4-point scale if you are asking for a scaled response. (Odd numbered scales allow students to choose the easy neutral answer. With an even number of options, they must make a choice. )
Use the target language as much as possible. This is a learning experience, too.
Include reverse statements for particularly important items. (For example: "The teacher was on time for class," and later, "The teacher was late for class." This has two advantages. First it lets you know if the student understood the statements. Second it lets you know if students are really reading the statements or just answering at random.)
Keep the number of questions to a bare minimum.
Make a space at the bottom, not on the back, for comments. Students rarely write comments if they have to turn the paper over.

In administering the questionnaire, I have found that these points are useful in getting the best results.

Explain carefully how the results will be used.
Anonymity for the students is essential. No names.
Explain how the questionnaire works.
Ask a student to hand out the papers and collect them for you.
Leave the room while they are writing.
Ask someone to hold the results for you until after the grades are in, and tell the students that is what will happen.

Once the term is finished, give the questionnaires a look. Here are some points that I use when evaluating the evaluations.

Throw out questionnaires that have only one number on the scale selected, for example all 3's. Odds are that the student didn't read the statements, especially if you include conflicting items as suggested above.
Look for trends, for example general satisfaction with your use of the first language.
Collect commonly occurring comments. For example on my most recent evaluation, some students pointed out that I didn't follow the syllabus. (They are right, and I'll have to do something about that next time.)
Ignore comments that ask for specific activities unless the requests interest you or form a common trend in student opinion. (For example, with courses for the community college, learners often request a unit on a specific grammar point or the use of certain materials. In my most recent evaluations, one student asked for vocabulary quizzes. I include these ideas if they are of interest to me, but otherwise do not consider these isolated responses.)

Questionnaire style course evaluations are only one part of a comprehensive teacher development scheme, but they have served me well. When the university did challenge my teaching ability on the grounds that they had hired a "native speaker" to use English in class, I confidently countered with a request for research that showed that their all English classes would be more effective, and data from course evaluations that showed overwhelming student satisfaction with my use of Japanese in class. They have been an integral part of the evolution of my teaching practices over the years.

Faculty Development Lecture and Workshop: On course evaluation

2009-08-31T16:16:00.000+09:00

Today at Yokkaichi Nursing and Medical Care University the faculty and administration attended a presentation by Professor Masahiro Chikada of Nagoya University's Center for the Studies of Higher Education. The presentation contained new and useful information as well as helping me to reevaluate my own course evaluations and syllabus.

In this post, I will present some of the ideas that were new to me. First Prof. Chikada used an interesting diagram to show the flow of information in any school between teachers and students

Teacher------------------------------>
   curriculum, syllabus, teach, grade
             <---------------------------------------------------------Student
                entrance, register, attend, take tests, course evaluation

Chikada also presented some results of research on course evaluations done by Takahashi Yasuoka

the fewer students in class, the higher the evaluations, from 30 up evaluations decreased until reaching 100 people, where they leveled off
almost no relationship between grades and course evaluations
science and technical fields showed lower evaluations than other disciplines
no relationship between teacher's research record and course evaluations
evaluation results decrease as age rises (speaking habits sited as cause)
results show relationship to days and times, Mondays and third periods being lowest
teachers don't like big classes, but students indifferent
as evaluation questions increase in number, reliability drops
quick feedback on results is important to students

Chikada's conclusion was that
1. Syllabus should reflect the purpose of the class as well as details on what kind necessary for passing and excellence.
2. Schools should determine their own definition of what is a "good class."
3. Schools should put their results to work, praising teachers with high marks and providing support for teachers with low marks, as well as reviewing and revising curriculum and faculty responsibilities.
4. Insure that students and see and feel the results of course evaluations.

Report on the Japan Steiner School Management Business Meeting, 2009

2009-08-30T13:16:00.000+09:00

This is report on the business meeting portion of the Japan Steiner School Management Gathering held on August 16, 2009. They are from my notes and are not to be considered an official document from the group. I post them here as an advertisement for Steiner schools in Japan, and as a record for any interested party.

The Management Gathering was held at the Izumi School in Toyo Machi, Hokkaido. The meeting was attended by representatives from 10 schools and education research institutions.

The meeting started in the morning on the 16th. The agenda included an introductory statement by a representative from each of the ten groups represented. Also attending was the founder of Furuyama Education Research. The schools' reports included numbers of students, teachers, current projects, problems, and plans for the future. Some common issues included school space, teacher availability, and status of students as school refusers.

A representive from the Kyo Tanabe Steiner School in Kyoto reported on their progress in registering as a UNESCO school. A list of Japanese UNESCO Schools can be found here. The application paperwork awaits delivery to UNESCO by the Japanese government.

High schools were the next topic of discussion. Since students are not registered as attending accredited schools in Japan if they are going to a Steiner school, their admission to Japanese colleges and universities is not possible. As a result, some students choolse to leave Steiner schools when they reach high school. High schools are also expensive to manage because of the students' material needs. For example, equipment and facilities for scientific experiments is expensive. As a result there were suggestions that schools cooperatively operate high schools. For example having schools in a geographic area cooperate to open regional high schools with dormitory facilities so that children who continue in Steiner schools could travel to learn at cooperatively managed schools.

The next main order of business was the establishement of a federation of steiner schools in Japan. The suggestion met with a mix of opinions. The main objectives, laid out by the original presenter of the idea were,
1. Serve as a clearing house for information on Steiner schools in Japan and the world for
   a. media
   b. prospective students and parents
   c. current students and parents
   d. teachers and prospective teachers
   e. international media learners and scholars
   f. prospective donors
2. Serve as a political action group
3. Serve as a sanctioning body for Steiner schools in Japan
4. Serve as an economic buffer for schools that require immediate financial support

The final two issues coverd included Steiner Schools in Asia and criticisms of Waldorf schools.

This Sounds Like a Macro Economic Problem

2009-08-11T11:11:00.000+09:00

In Macro Economics classes one of the things you learn is about supply and demand, and how that affects prices. That is, when there is a shortage of widgets, demand increases, and prices go up. When there is a glut of widgets, demand decreases and prices go down. When prices go up, fewer people buy, reducing the strain on demand. When prices go down, more people buy, easing the oversupply. Simple stuff, but why isn't it happening in Japan at universities?

One news article reports that, "Nearly 40 percent of privately run colleges and universities across Japan operated in the red in the academic year to last March." That means prices should be coming down and that more students should be able to afford college now.

But that isn't true. In fact a study research from the University of Tokyo found, "that less than 30 percent of high school students from households with under 2 million yen in annual income go on to a four-year university. "

If there is a problem of recruiting students, schools should be reducing their prices, making it possible for children from lower-income families to get a good education.

There are serious management problems that benefit no one if these problems continue.

Another Anniversary of the Hiroshima Bombing

2009-08-06T09:53:00.002+09:00

About every two years there is enough pressure built up for a new post on the events today. Today is another anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. At the risk of sounding insensitive, the popular sentiments often ring hollow and uninformed. There are no thesis statements attached to all of this outpouring of sentiment. There is never any mention of Japan's plans to build their own nukes, nor of their post-war experimentation with them.

Today on television there will be at least two emotionally charged television shows about how a group of young people lost their lives in the bombings. There are countless "news" reports on the events in 1945 and commemoration activities today. There are memorial services held all over the country, and all over the globe. What is the thesis statement? Any writer knows that there must be a statement somewhere identifying the the central theme of the piece. What is it here? Is it that we should abolish nuclear weapons? Is it that we should pursue a peaceful solution to our problems in the future? Is it that America performed a war crime for which it should be tried and punished? What is the point?

Secondly there is no discussion of Japan's nuclear program. Japan had a program, and it was believed at that time that Japan would test its weapon on August 12 in Hunan, China, the same place where Japanese planes had spread plague virus in experiments on biological weapons. One has to wonder if the people of Hunan were to be used again in nuclear weapons experiments. The Red Army invaded Hunan before the Americans could get there to assess the situation, and as Japan had a weapons production facility there, the Soviets were not interested in having the Americans searching around and getting their hands on valuable information.

There is no discussion of Japan having enough capability to build a nuclear weapon, making it a de facto nuclear state. There is no mention of its "space program" being similar to North Korea's, with definite applications for business and industry, that could just as easily be a missile development program.

This emotional appeal will continue through into September with remembrances of Nagasaki, and the end of the war with no direct, meaningful appeals for peace, nuclear disarmament, or mutual understanding. After all of the tears, and the wishing it hadn't happened, what are we supposed to think?

Learning Vocabulary: Master the Most Useful First

2009-08-04T11:16:00.000+09:00

When you set out to master a new language, you know you will have to learn words. You may rely on a teacher or a textbook to tell you which words are important, and which words to remember, but you must take charge of your own vocabulary learning strategies. If you build your vocabulary, even with a remedial understanding of grammar, you will be able to communicate more effectively and have more fun. Consider these points as you continue on your path to fluency.

How many words do you know in English? If you are a college educated native speaker of the language, then you probably know about 17,000. You probably knew about 12,000 when you began college. Now, how much of that enormous reservoir of words do you use on any given day? The first 2,000 most frequently used words in English make up 85% of our daily language use. That means that most of the words that you use everyday are recycled over and over gain. The other words are there on reserve, but not used as often. There is even a distinction we can make between words we can use actively and those which we only know passively. For example a word that you hear sometimes on the news but have difficulty remembering for yourself when you want to use it is a some passive vocabulary.

What are the most frequently used words? There are linguists who take samples of language from sources, compile the data and calculate the words and their frequency. The most commonly used word in English is the. In fact of the first 227 words so far in this essay, you will find the eleven times. Number 2001, according to the most frequently used words according to Paul Nation's General Service List (GSL) is apple. Think about it. Did you say apple today? Did you read the word? You may have, but even if you have indeed eaten on today, you may not have heard anyone say the word, said it yourself, read it, and even less likely, written it.

The same can be said for any other language in existence. There are some words that are used frequently, and there are words that are not. As a language learner, you should focus on building a solid base of vocabulary with these words in your new language. There is little reason to learn other words unless they are of professional or personal use to you. If there is no such list available for your language, you could start by translating the GSL into your language. (This will probably give you a pretty good start, but it isn't perfect. Not all words will translate directly. For example English has a word for leg and foot. They are distinctly different. In Japanese for example, they get lumped together as ashi.)

Armed with that knowledge now you can move on to remembering the words you need, but you need to be aware that words can be remembered in different ways. Probably the most useful way to have remembered a word is being able to understand someone when they say it. If you are going to use the language for spoken communication, then you need to be able to understand the other person say the word. Then of course, you may want to be able to say it yourself. This means that you will have to listen to the word and repeat it enough times to get the pronunciation close enough so that when you use the word, your partner can understand. You may want to be able to read the word, too. If you are interested in reading menus, train schedules, or historical information about a particular area, then being able to read the word is essential. Writing the word would be handy if you are going to be corresponding with people, business partners for example, in your target language. Then you need to know how to spell the words correctly, too.

These skills are mutually exclusive and do not overlap. Which means that just because you can read a word does not mean that you will automatically be able to say it or understand it when it is said to you. You probably have words like that in your native language, words that you can say, understand and read, but cannot spell. You may not need to be able to spell the new words, either, and that is alright, too. If that is the case, then do not spend time learning how to do that.

An implication of this knowledge is that written lists of vocabulary, like the GSL, will be helpful, but the words will be written on a page. You will need to listen and understand them. Current language textbooks often contain CDs or even DVDs with spoken language recorded on them. If you use one of these for your language, be aware that some of the words in the text will not be from the first 2000 words that we mentioned. Be selective about how you spend your time and energy, but practice the words you hear by saying, reading and writing them for yourself, based on your needs.

Finally there is one truth that you should know. The words in any vocabulary list are going to be what are called root words for word families. One word family may have a root word, like a spoon, which is a thing we eat with, but may also be a verb that means "to scoop out" or "to engage in loving behavior, like kissing." These members of the family are not counted as separate words. They are counted as one in the list of 2,000. There will be words like that in your language, too, and you should make decisions about which of the members of the family are essential to learn and which are not. For example with our word spoon, the amorous behavior meaning is not used that often, so is not really necessary at the being of our learning. Another example is the word for tree in Japanese is ki. It also carries the meaning of wood. Both words are common enough that you would want to learn them both. You may want to make a chart with the different uses of the word, the noun, verb, adjective, and adverb forms of the word. You can add to it later as time goes on.

Learning new vocabulary can be fun and rewarding as you pile up your list of mastered words. It will certainly be rewarding when you can understand and use the words in you new language, and the most frequently used words will be the easiest and most gratifying to remember because they occur so often. Stick to the basics and build a solid base of vocabulary with the most fundamental word families. Listen to and say the words at least, and be able to read and write them when you want to be able to. Then when you branch out into other fields of your language learning, it will be more fun and rewarding.

Locus of control: What does it mean for our students?

2009-07-31T16:11:00.000+09:00

"Locus of control" was a new term that I heard for the first time yesterday. It is a concept that was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954, and is now an important tool in personality studies. Locus of control is about the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them. Individuals with a high internal locus of control believe that events result mostly from their own behavior and actions.

It is applied to many different fields, but basically it says that people with a high "internal" locus believe that they control what happens to them. People with a high "external" focus believe that they have no control over what happens to them, that events are controlled by gods, aliens, or "the government."

This concept was interesting to me, because it gives me another tool for understanding my students and how they learn. Locus of control seems to help predict academic success, like in this study by
Gifford, Briceno-Perriot, and Mianzo that found, "first-year students who entered university with lower scores on the locus of control scale (internals) obtained significantly higher GPAs than those who scored higher (externals) on this same scale." This scale also seems to vary between cultural backgrounds and gender. This study by Takaya Kohyama shows that,"Students from both Japan and Taiwanexhibited higher levels of external orientation than did studentsfrom the USA."

In discussions with my son about this issue, it is his opinion that externalizing influences in Japanese society are so strong that it would be nearly impossible to overcome, even if the students possessed the knowledge of the differences.

What does Education Have to Offer: Should Foreign Languages Be Offered at Public Schools

2009-07-28T18:52:00.000+09:00

This morning I saw two bits of news on education that initiated this rant. First I saw a report on television news about a physical fitness assessment of nursery school aged children in Japan, which showed that some children in urban areas and then read that Illinois is gutting its foreign language education curriculum. That started me thinking about what the purpose of public education is anyway. What is its purpose? What does it really deliver, and what parts of it are essential and what are not?

If Illinois is having to think that hard about whether to keep its foreign language curriculum, then maybe it isn't that important to begin with. There will be all of the usual arguments, that if students don't get another language they won't be competitive, that foreign languages help us process information differently and better, that Americans are not multilingual enough. Those are all fine arguments, but what does that have to do with what public schools should offer and what they shouldn't? Fundamentally public schools should teach children the bare minimum, reading, writing, and 'rithmatic, and the rest is expendable. In fact, that is all they are capable of doing anyway, capable in terms of finances and pedagogical ability. I want my children to be in class learning how to read and write in the language on offer, how to crunch some numbers, and that is it. I want them the heck out of there. I will take care of the rest. I will chose how much of anything else they get. Just keep the state out of my kids' heads.

"Oh, but that isn't fair, " some will say. "What about the kids who can't afford more than what public education has to offer." It isn't fair now. Kids in poorer areas get less than kids in richer areas. The only way that is going to get better is if more people get interested in helping all children in their communities to thrive. It isn't fair in Japan either, even in this country where homogeneous is the order of the day. Kids who go to cram schools don't study at school, because school doesn't offer the quality or quantity that cram schools do. The kids who don't go to cram schools or can't afford them don't get the same advantages. That means that the hours and hours of sitting in classes, being evaluated by teachers on everything from their ability to solve simple math to their willingness to obey without question is part of a pedagogical agenda that has little to do with the state's ostensible concerns about equality. Just keep the state out of my kid's heads.

My son is taking an "Ethics" class now at school. If I thought they were trying to teach them ethics, I would yank him out of that school yesterday. I have no confidence that the teachers at the school he is attending have the slightest clue about what Ethics is about. Instead they teach some basic Philosophy, which I do not object to. Even that is unwelcome from the state. I do not want the state deciding with philosophy is appropriate for my children to learn. It doesn't matter what my leanings may be. I may feel that Marx and Bookchin are appropriate for my children. Just keep the state out of my kids' heads.

We also need to face the realities of modern pedagogical agendas. The paradigm of most education now was institutionalized around the beginning of the industrial revolution to create a workforce capable of operating machinery and sitting for long shifts of brain and body numbing work. It was developed to classify and segregate information in minute detail, not to examine the intricate connectedness of all things. Look for example at English education in Japan. This isn't taught to help young people to communicate. It is a tool to segretate and separate students who can by innate talent or through brute force of will commit to memory the minutiae of English grammar as defined by the Japanese state from those who can't or won't. Just keep the state out of my kid's heads.

Then that's fine. If Illinois doesn't have the money to teach foreign languages, or art, or physical education, or political science, then turn the kids out early and quit trying to micromanage their lives. If Japanese kids can't run or throw a ball as well as kids twenty years ago, and that is important to the communities where they live, then the residents should get together and provide safe, clean places for their children to play, not expect the state to do something it isn't able or willing to do now.

Having doubts about textbooks

2009-07-12T10:19:00.001+09:00

Until now I thought it was handy to have a textbook. It gave me and the students a kind of road map for how to procede. It was easy to make tests for because I could more easily quantify and qualify what we had covered, and so could the students.

This semester I used another method of study in addition to a textbook. Now I am regretting that I required my students to buy the text. First, I started using a method that would get students communicating in English based on their own experiences. I found this idea on Duane Kindt's site on TIPS (Tools for Increasing Proficiency). His method included having students tell other students about themselves, starting from who they are as people and then progressing on to their families and lifestyles.

This process convinced me of some points:
a. Students do not naturally approach grammar as it is presented in textbooks in any skill area, listening, speaking, reading or writing. (Available texts don't approximate what my students want to say.)
b. Traditional testing patterns are not sufficient for helping students learn a language. (Classroom events should steer testing, not artificially imposed criteria.)
c. All class content can be generated from student communication.
d. The teacher's role, at least in the university setting where I find myself, is to introduce a method or methods for learning, to encourage and guide communication, to provide criteria for evaluation, to contextualize student needs and language requirements, and occasionally provide evidence based intercultural perspective.

Textbooks are not written to provide this kind of support.

There are limitations to this approach. It is time consuming, and necessitates a teacher be available to students. That means that this may not be useful for teachers who are paid to teach by the hour. Their jobs are to be with a class for a period, not to plan, or evaluate outside of the class. For those teachers texts are probably an essential resource.

Teachers should quit if they don't like anthem: Saitama gov.

2009-07-10T10:14:00.000+09:00

Teachers should quit if they don't like anthem: Saitama gov.

Public shaming isn't just for kids anymore, it's on the list for methods in treating nonconformist teachers. Not only does Kiyoshi Ueda believe that teachers should quit if they don't stand up and sing the national anthem, he believes that their schools should be humiliated publicly by having the names published. You know what that means.

Translation as a teaching tool

2009-07-09T11:26:00.000+09:00

I've been doing some thinking about using translation as a teaching tool after sharing tweets with CotterHUE. I have never used translation in any of my classes as a formal activity, but I know my students do it all the time we talk to each other. They want to know how to interpret something in Japanese or English. Since our class is a core curriculum class, one of the very few that they have in their course of study, I am obliged to offer basic humanities style content in addition to the English skills development curriculum. The content I offer is usually comparative culture, which is also a kind of translation or interpretation. My conclusion is that whether we offer translation to our students as a formal activity or not, they are engaged in high level interpretation/translation of words, grammar, and concepts during much of their study.

I do not plan to use formal translation as an activity in my classes though, for two reasons. The students who come to this university have been exposed to translation before in schools, and it has been used as a proscriptive activity where word and phrase equivilants are memorized and regurgitated in meaningless drills, aimed only at creating distinctions between students who-can-and-do and those who-can-but-don't. Somewhere someone has gotten the activity wrong, and has been using it as a punishment rather than a creative activity.

Translation can be a creative activity. I had the privilege of working with a professor in Kumamoto who was translating some of the works of John Steinbeck into Japanese. We talked about his work several times, and discussed how translation is akin to writing a creative work itself, because the translator has to interpret the content of the work on many different levels and create ways to communicate that in another language. On the other hand, our students are expected to be able to read some text and switch it mechanically into the accepted alternative.

The other reason I do not plan to introduce translation as a activity in my classes is purely of time constraints. I do not want to spend the time in class on it, considering the factors above. My students will naturally fall into the role of translator as they progress in their language abilities. They will have to accept the role of people straddling the line between cultures and interpreting them for others.

Japan's problems with Non-Japanese (Nurses)

2009-07-09T10:18:00.000+09:00

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.

Why don't they have such programs for other professions which are experiencing shortages in qualified personnel, like physicians and lawyers? My guess is that they know that by introducing programs that open up the medical and legal professions to NJ professionals will challenge the status quo. The government is unduly influenced by powerful men in those professions and they will have nothing to do with it.

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. 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 bicycle-riding NJ's, 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 and immigrants to Japan. Of course I can't vote either, so have no say, but I would oppose such programs.

Japan's problems with Non-Japanese (Nurses)

2009-07-03T16:46:00.000+09:00

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

2009-07-01T11:55:00.000+09:00

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.