Professional Development

Originated by Birmingham MA TEFL/TESL students

A recent success story in the classroom

I like singing very much and believe that singing songs has many benefits for language learning. It is easy to make children sing. However, it is getting more difficult to make older students sing. I currently teach university students and while they like to listen to songs they are not very keen on singing.

I remember that I attended a workshop of “jazz chants” several years ago so I decided to use chanting with songs. I chanted the lyrics of the song line by line with the rhythm but without the melody, then I asked students to repeat after me. With this method, more students, especially those who were reluctant to sing, joined in the chorus. It is much easier for them to chant lines than singing, and perhaps, less embarrassing. I used another idea as well to encourage them to chant. Recently in Japan, neuroscience has become more popular. Many books about research on the brain has been published and the word 脳トレ(brain training) is now fashionable. I showed a picture that illustrated what parts of a brain worked when we read aloud. It showed that many more parts of the brain worked actively than when we read silently. I told them “Let’s activate our brain!”

Comment

Sometimes, it is difficult to make Japanese students participate in activities because they are too shy or too self-conscious. You should try different strategies that suit your students’ age, level and personality.

A thought or idea in progress

I enjoyed poster presentations very much at Hiroshima MASH in August 2008. It’s an excellent way to present what you are doing in your classroom. I would like to do such a presentation if there is an opportunity. I have been operating an extensive reading program in my classes for six years. I want to use poster presentation in the program as well. It would be nice for students to have presentations on their favorite books.

From teacher to teachers

When I was teaching the Japanese language in Ireland, I arranged many language exchanges between Japanese and Irish students to get them to help each other. I have also been very lucky to have a lot of exchange partners throughout my studies. I think Japanese teachers and native English speaking teachers should find ways to collaborate more, both in teaching and in research, because we all teach English in Japan. I am wondering how we can promote more collaboration. As for me, if anyone wants to improve their Japanese, or want to know about Japanese traditional theatre I can help.

Kishiko is an active member of the Gospel choir called “Precious Praise”. She also enjoys 読み聞かせ(reading) English books in an elementary and a junior high school. Contact her at nash@sc5.so-net.ne.jp

Editor's note:
I first met Kishiko at JALT2007 when she presented at the Birmingham Graduate Student Showcase. She has done a very interesting study on using Extensive Reading in her classroom over a four year period. She quickly became interested in MASH because she loves interacting with people. We have all learned so much from her perspective as a Japanese teacher of English (JTE) and respect her approach in the classroom. I had the added privilege of being asked to go "typo hunting" in her dissertation and enjoyed it thoroughly.

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