Professional Development

Originated by Birmingham MA TEFL/TESL students

What do students think about learning English? How do they feel about the future of English in Japan? What do they believe about language learning and teaching, and more questions that we’ve yet to ask them?

Learners’ Voices provides a unique opportunity to share students’ stories, opinions, and ideas from the whole spectrum of English learning and teaching contexts in Japan (e.g. eikaiwa, private language schools, K-12, universities, juku, etc).

Teachers are invited to discover more from our learners while offering them an incredible chance not only to be heard by thousands of teachers throughout Japan and across the globe, but also hear back from the professional community.

Colin Skeates interviews interpretation student, Yuka Taniguchi

In this learners' Voices interview we hear from Yuka, a student who is studying interpretation. The topic of our discussion is something that I overheard Yuka say a couple of weeks ago - she now believes that it is possible to learn English in Japan. I thought it might be interesting to ask Yuka to explain what she meant. The following is the result of our discussion.

Interview with Yuka

A significant point that I hear from this interview is the importance of having goals. Yuka talked about how her goals have changed over the course of her learning. As she thought more of what she wants to do with her English, her goals have become more and more specific. I think that this is interesting and reminds me of an old saying ...

"It is a lot easier to get where you are going if you know where you want to go!"

A component of language learning for Yuka seems to be setting goals for what she wants to do with her English.

Interviewer:
Colin Skeates
University instructor

Bio: I have taught in Japan for over 12 years now. 6 of those years have been at the university level. I love my job and feel successful when my students teach me something new..

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• Learners' Voices (12)
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