【JET 20th Anniversary Panel Discussion】
>The Enrichment of Foreign Language Instruction (2)
Matsumoto: Ms. Naoyama, how about sharing your perspectives on this subject?
Naoyama: When ALTs first began arriving under the JET Programme, not that many middle-school teachers were prepared to work together with native speakers and actually start speaking English. In some instances, once native English speakers began showing up, the regular English teachers seemed to vanish from the school's staff room.
Matsumoto: What? The English teachers just disappeared?
Naoyama: Some teachers were actually like that, unfortunately. Early on in the programme, some teachers took a back seat to classroom instruction and allowed the ALT to do everything. Recognising that this situation was unacceptable, local governments banded together and implemented various training programmes. The training courses were backed by a commitment to team teaching and the realisation that English teachers had to take the initiative and build better bridges of communication with the ALTs and children. However, this somehow resulted in ALTs being utilised more as walking tape recorders. "Okay class, say this. Now, repeat." Such approaches had the effect of treating ALTs like a piece of machinery. As Agnes Chan alluded to earlier, yes, most ALTs do come to Japan to teach English but they also have something more substantial to convey to school kids than the English language itself.
For example, in a third year junior high school class I asked the ALT “what kind of things have you found odd since coming to Japan?”, The ALT answered “chopsticks”. Angrily the ALT explained “Japanese people are very wasteful. With so many environmental problems in today’s world I find it hard to forgive the waste involved in using disposable chopsticks.” “Please tell this to the children in English” I said and we created a skit. I played the part of an Udon Noodle vendor and when the ALT entered the shop I welcomed him, holding chopsticks and a bowl, with “irashaimase” (welcome). The ALT ordered “One bowl of Udon please!”, but then droped his chopsticks. He asks for “one more chopsticks” but then drops this too. After the skit the ALT turns to the children, “This is how you are wasting chopsticks. Why don’t you bring plastic chopsticks to the Cafeteria!”. One of the third year girls turns to the ALT. “You are wrong. We make chopsticks out of waste wood. We are not wasting anything, we are making very efficient use (of the resources). Why don’t you do more research before you say such things”. The ALT apologized. It is interactions such as these that constitute meaningful mutual exchange.
Nowadays many ALTs are active in elementary schools. ALTs usually visit a classroom once a week. When an ALT is off duty, the teacher in charge provides the kids with details about their ALT. "Class, did you know that Kate Sensei has come all the way from Britain alone, lives by herself, and doesn't understand a word of Japanese? That's amazing, don't you think? But Kate Sensei is amazing, too! She prepares her own meals and looks after all her own needs."
On one occasion, Kate Sensei was absent due to illness. Concerned, the kids asked, "Why isn't Kate Sensei here today?" The teacher in charge explained: "Kate Sensei came down with a fever and is at home in bed, too sick to go see a doctor." One third-year student exclaimed, "Okay, then let's write her a get-well letter." And so all the kids put their hearts into writing letters, albeit in Japanese.
When Kate Sensei arrived for class the following week, having recovered from her illness and in good health, the kids ran up to her with their bundle of letters. Although she couldn't read any of them, tears came to her eyes as the children did their best to communicate with her. "Kate Sensei, okay? Okay now?" On seeing the ALT begin to cry, several of the children ran off to report to the teacher in charge. "Kate Sensei is crying!" The teacher responded, "She's crying because she's happy.” Then the children said, “She's just like us and everyone else, Japanese or not. We sometimes cry when we're happy." If we ask what children learn through contact with an ALT, of course they learn English, but through experiences such as this, they also learn that the ALT is just as human as they are. That in itself is a priceless classroom experience and certainly one of the biggest successes of the JET Programme. (Applause)
Matsumoto: Thank you. As a job title, "assistant language teacher" usually implies a teacher of English in Japan. Ms. Chan, earlier you suggested that relatively few instructors come to Japan solely with the intent of teaching English.
Chan: Right. To some, that may seem against the spirit of the JET Programme. That's why I believe everyone in the JET Programme at some point may need to acknowledge that most instructors are not really here primarily to teach English. If that seems difficult to accept, or rather, if there is a desire to stay true to the stated intent of the programme, then it may be that the programme is ready for a serious review. That's if teaching English is to be its prime goal.
Promoting international exchange and understanding on a grassroots level is a noble idea. I also think it is great that Japan is acting with such class, as a world power should, by making contributions to international society and providing opportunities for young people worldwide to visit Japan and socialise with Japanese kids.
However, if you haven't given up the idea of somehow making serious improvements to the English language teaching side of the JET Programme, then I think the time has arrived to sit down and examine the results it has delivered to date, sort out the good from the bad, do the research, and come up with a new curriculum. I honestly believe the programme should have specific targets for the next five, 10, 15, or 20 years. Also, unless it seriously incorporates or reflects school textbook and classroom content, the JET Programme will continue to be evaluated largely in terms of the cultural dimension, as we are doing here today.
Personally, I would really like to see Japan seriously pursue the research, collect the data, and as a true world power, implement a framework that enables its students to develop solid English comprehension and speaking skills, if possible, after their compulsory middle-school education is complete. Enlisting the JET Programme to that end will demand an effort to integrate all of the programme's singular benefits into a comprehensive, synergistic whole. Ensuring that all of the accomplishments derived at great expense through heavy annual outlays over the last 20 years by each local government are still visible down the road -- that's my idea of true, lasting cultural exchange.
Matsumoto: Actually, we do have the results of a questionnaire directed at JET Programme ALTs, and they do reveal certain differences school-by-school. For example, some ALTs have expressed the frustration that while they are allowed to manage all classroom instruction at certain schools, at others their role is so marginalized they don't even know why they have been placed there. Still others describe being seriously baffled by the abrupt request to assume a pivotal instructional role together with a Japanese teacher at the classroom podium despite having zero teaching experience, even though their native tongue is English. Although many ALTs have expressed these misgivings, the JET Programme has been in operation for some 20 years now. Mr. Tanaka, do you have any comment on these viewpoints?
Tanaka:Although I think our educators are doing a fine job, I don't have an in-depth understanding of every aspect because in the first place. I am not a professional in the education field.
That said, my impression from the discussion thus far is that with regard to study, one has to have motivation, otherwise one will not succeed. I myself have been trying to study several languages lately, and in doing so I've come to the realisation that one has to have the motivation to do one's best and to actually acquire and use the skills instead of merely learning about them. In my view, that is an accomplishment that comes only through repeated effort. From that perspective, I believe ALTs and school teachers need to motivate the children by working together as a team.
As the educators on our panel have indicated, there are several ways to go about doing that. At CLAIR, we have implemented training and have also been engaged in a variety of additional measures, but I would not be surprised if some feel we have not done enough. In light of this criticism, I will say that we still need to deal with English language education as a priority issue.
