Teaching Children - Elementary School English Archive

The panelists...
Mark Fennelly
Ann Mayeda and Steven Nishida
Tom Merner
Catherine Oki
Myron Wright

Mark Fennelly
Since the mid-90s I have been involved with pilot schools and was involved with many schools who were struggling to develop curricula and an understanding of English education at this level. Following the introduction of the period of integrated studies in 2002 most schools in the area began introducing English activities which were more often than not based around ALT visits. A focus on motivation and whether the students enjoyed the classes or not seemed to be the main concern of teachers involved and disparity in regularity and content was abundant. The annual surveys by MEXT relating to the regularity and content of English Activities certainly put pressure on schools to increase their classes. By 2008 99% of schools locally were conducting English activity classes and again in the majority of cases it was ALTs or local ‘guest teachers’ who were leading these classes at a rate of about once or twice a month.

Since 2008 great change has been occurring. With the government having outlined the new course of study, base institutions (kyotenko schools) were set up to experiment and research in weekly Foreign Language Activity classes based on the Eigo Note materials. During the first year many kyotenko schools relied heavily on ALTs and local experts, however a shift to homeroom teacher led classes was apparent in the second year of the project. Many teachers involved were anxious about their English ability and the burden of preparing for these new classes.

With compulsory English on the horizon the local prefectural and municipal boards of education began offering training sessions and workshops for teachers. This and the government requiring 30 hours of in-service training for teachers prior to the start of the new course of study in 2011, has lead to an increased demand for teacher training and teacher trainers. Now that teachers have been given the course of study and content on which to base their classes, training has begun to have more focus. However a recent survey suggests that the majority of teachers involved are not confident to be the ones to teach.

Over the last year I have seen a great move from teachers relying on someone else to teach these classes to teachers taking responsibility for classes themselves. A move from once a month classes to once a week classes has made it impossible for most schools, in less than affluent areas, to employ people to teach these classes. If the goal was English education and a skills based approach this would probably be a mistake. However, the goal of foreign language activities is not English education so to speak, it is not a subject (as that would require two hours a week and a textbook: Eigo note is not really a textbook but is a basic guide for teachers). Over two years the students will only have 70 hours of these classes through which it is hoped that the students will get used to some basic phrases and the sound of English, develop interest and knowledge in foreign cultures (and their own culture) and to develop a positive attitude towards communication. It is hoped that the students will develop interest and motivation and that this experiential learning experience will help develop a base in communicative competence. It was deemed that the homeroom teachers are the best fitted to develop the course as they can relate their classes to other subjects and they know how to get the best from their students. They can also act as a role learner for their students. The role of ALTs and local expert has changed to that of a supporting role and language model, though it should be said that some of these ‘guests’ are still reluctant to move to a supporting role.

Observing classes locally I have to say that some of the best classes I have observed have been homeroom teacher led with the students actively involved using English as a tool to communicate. However, some of the classes I have seen have also been terrible. The main reason being that a teacher with little confidence, training or experience returns to what they know best i.e. how they were taught in junior high 20 years ago.

It is obvious that teachers require more training and support. The role of universities is also vital in developing future teachers who can teach successfully under the new course of studies. It should be noted that local universities, including my own have introduced courses for future teachers related to English.

One worry at present is the number of people involved in supporting schools and teacher training who do not fully understand the goal of the course. As it is the responsibility of homeroom teachers to do the best for their students it is the responsibility of teacher trainers and those involved with schools to understand this communicative experience course and not treat it as a skill- based, output based English education course.

Though changes in the course of study outlines for the period of integrated studies is causing many schools to stop teaching English in the lower grades, present research schools are looking into starting in the third grade, first grade or teaching English as a subject, and it seems that English in elementary schools is here to stay. How this change is incorporated by junior high schools is an area which will receive a lot of attention over the next year or so.

Mark Fennelly taught English at the elementary and junior high school level for over 15 years in Egypt and Japan before joining the faculty of Shikoku University in 2004. For the past seven years he has been responsible for teacher training classes related to elementary and kindergarten English for English and education majors. He has been involved in teacher training for elementary school teachers for many years and supports prefectural and municipal training workshops locally. Believing in ‘hands on’ experience he has introduced real classroom experience into his classes and developed a network of voluntary opportunities in elementary schools for students. His research interests include teacher development, task-based approach and curriculum development.

Ann Mayeda and Steven Nishida
Teacher O has been teaching in public elementary schools for over 30 years. She is currently the chief teacher-trainer and foreign language activities coordinator at a MEXT-designated pilot school in southern Osaka. She speaks very little English but has been facilitating English activities in elementary schools since 2001. Currently Eigo Noto (EN) is being implemented in stages: beginning with 15 classroom hours in grades 5 and 6 in 2009, increasing to 25 hours in 2010, and finally reaching 35 hours in 2011 when compulsory English classes begin in all public elementary schools.

To ensure that her colleagues have a clear understanding of how ‘English activities classes’ will be conducted, Teacher O decided early on to involve the entire teaching staff in the planning process. In 2008 they were divided into two teams. Grade 1, 3, and 5 teachers made up the Grade 5 team, grade 2, 4, and 6 teachers made up the grade 6 team. Each team brainstormed possible teaching schemes and schedules for the 15 teaching hours in 2009 and came up with tentative lesson plans. Each group based their curriculum on the EN instructional materials (including the interactive whiteboard software) and modified the progression to take into account the number of teaching hours available with the assistant native English teachers (NTs).

Teacher O overcomes her limited English ability by collaborating with colleagues and other teachers in her area who help her to plan effective English activities for the classroom. Contributors to her cause range from proficient non-native teachers of English to native teachers of English to enthusiastic learners, including a number of her teaching colleagues. She endeavors to understand MEXT’s guidelines for foreign language activities and how they translate to actual classroom practice, and she attends teacher training seminars regularly. Teacher O empowers the teaching staff with a ‘can do’ attitude. She has worked subtly and persistently to bring everyone on board and they, collectively, make up for any limitations posed by their relatively weak English ability. This school is buzzing with positive energy from the principal on down to the individual students.

Contrast this with the situation of Teacher R. Teacher R has been teaching for over 25 years in northeastern Osaka. She teaches music to all grades and is also the foreign language activities coordinator. She communicates competently and confidently in English, and this is the main reason she was chosen to lead English activities at her school. Teacher R’s school also has a student body of roughly 800 students, and hers is also a pilot school for foreign language activities. English activities have been conducted in all grades since 2001 with between 1 and 10 classroom hours per year.

Teacher R designs and coordinates all of the classes by herself. She draws up all lesson plans, then creates all props and teaching materials. Next, she discusses the lesson plans with the NTs, reviews the content with the home room teacher (HRT) and, finally, hands each HRT their ‘package’ lesson. The amount of work she does is astounding, so the administrative staff view her as a savior. While the teaching staff certainly appreciate her willingness to lighten the load for all teachers, there is tepid enthusiasm at this school regarding English education as a whole. In fact, she cites passive resistance both from older teachers who disagree with English education in the primary years and from younger teachers who lack confidence in their ability to teach English, or even to speak it themselves. There is a systemic dependency on Teacher R to solve all issues related to English. Consequently, there is a general lack of interest in conducting English lessons and even teachers who excel as 5th and 6th grade teachers have given strong indication that they no longer want to teach these grades if they are required to conduct English activities. Given this environment, Teacher R feels great pressure to do everything herself; to package up the lessons and deliver them ready-to-go. She is aware that the current situation is not sustainable in the long term, but she sees the current workflow as the path of least resistance.

Teacher O and Teacher R are both dedicated professionals committed to implementing foreign language activities, but they have vastly different approaches to their duties. Teacher O lacks English ability but empowers her colleagues, resulting in collective enthusiasm, mutual support, and learning by all parties involved. Teacher R is a competent teacher of English but unintentionally enables her colleagues to rely solely on her skills, resulting in rampant over-dependence, low motivation, and general apathy.

These are two common scenarios we have heard from teachers working hard to implement national educational policy. In both scenarios, the coordinators are committed to engaging students in foreign language activities by exposing them to experiential learning situations, getting familiar with basic phrases and the sounds of English, developing interest and knowledge in their own and foreign cultures and cultivating a positive attitude towards communication. In both scenarios, the coordinator’s guiding objective is to provide students with a solid base upon which communicative competence can be developed.

The take-away point: In every public elementary school, one teacher is chosen to act as a ‘coordinator’ of English activities in that particular school. The attitude and approach exhibited by this ‘coordinator’ set the tone and direction of that school’s English activities, including the general English environment. If the ‘coordinator’ is a giver, or ‘enabler’, it is likely that most of the teaching staff will be resistant or apathetic, and students will ultimately receive lukewarm foreign language activities. If, on the other hand, the ‘coordinator’ works to empower her fellow teachers, they are likely to establish a positive support network that fosters a willingness to work by committee and even try things out for themselves. Our experience strongly suggests that process is the most reliable determiner of success.

Ann Mayeda and Steven Nishida developed and coordinated a three-year MEXT-funded elementary school teacher-training program which was hosted by Osaka Shoin Women’s University and delivered to over 350 in-service teachers between 2007 and 2010. Ann teaches at Konan Women’s University in Kobe. She has worked with young learners for as long as she had been in Japan, is a teacher-trainer and consultant for several public elementary schools in the Osaka and Nara area, and has also conducted workshops for the Osaka Education Center. She also has a keen interest in learner autonomy, motivation, and learner development as it applies to children and young adult learners. Steven teaches at Nara Institute of Science and Technology and is Co-Owner of English Masters - Communication Center. He has been organizing EFL events and communities in Japan for more than 10 years. He has also served as a teacher-trainer and consultant for Nara’s Prefectural Board of Education and a number of elementary schools in Nara. His current interests are in positive organizational psychology, learner autonomy, computer assisted language learning, and presentation design.

Tom Merner
A quick and simple answer to this question would be ... all schools that I know are struggling to fill up 35 class hours of lessons for the implementation of English Activities in 5th and 6th grades from the 2011 school year. How this effort is proceeding depends on each school and area. I will try to explain some of the issues such schools currently face based on my experience being involved in school program development and teacher training.

“English Activities” (EA) was first introduced into the elementary school curriculum in the year 2002, and over the years, it is reported that the number of schools conducting English Activities exceeded 90%. However, the reality is that the majority of these schools that started EA depended heavily on ALTs and other outside resources. In other words, very few schools had their own teachers conduct EA, and in most cases, lessons were prepared by such visiting teachers. Moreover, most schools lacked clear goals or a good understanding of what the aims of EA were. Under these circumstances, the majority of teachers kept an impression of the purpose of EA to be simply for teaching English to children, which is a misunderstanding shared by a large number of people across the country. Many elementary school teachers, who have this impression, still are not convinced why English must be implemented into the elementary school curriculum.

At the time EA was first implemented as an option in the current Course of Study (Shidouyouryou), the aim of EA was stated as not being mainly for language acquisition. The main goal was to nurture a willingness to communicate (not necessarily in English) through the experience children have in activities conducted in English. This was reflected in the name English “Activities” (NOT elementary school English education) and is maintained in the next Course of Study. Unfortunately, this was not explained clearly, and the majority of activities introduced by those who provided advice for the early development of EA were from the field of teaching English to children. Such activities became widespread and left the above mentioned impression, which also resulted in many elementary school teachers avoiding taking part.

Since the implementation of the renewed Elementary School Course of Study is set for the 2011 school year, elementary schools are now in a two year transition period called Ikoukikan. Schools use this period to prepare for the new Course of Studies, and prefectural and city boards of education provide various teacher training sessions for this purpose. At the prefectural level, a one year training course called Chukakukyouin Kenshu (Core Teacher Training) has been provided in the past two years. One teacher from each elementary school is required to attend this course and is asked to share the information with colleague teachers. From what I have heard, following an explanation of the outline of the upcoming implementation of EA, quite a lot of time is spent for workshops introducing the methods of using Eigo-note (a supplementary book prepared by the Ministry of Education). It is often the case that teachers attending these sessions still lack a good understanding of the purpose of EA and many state that they still lack self confidence to conduct EA on their own. What also frequently happens is that younger teachers are sent to these training sessions and since these teachers lack experience, both in teaching and dealing with such issues in school, they face difficulties sharing the information provided.

The first step I take when providing teacher training is to try to explain that EA is not simply for teaching English and the main aim is to develop a foundation for communication. Many schools seem to interpret this “foundation for communication” as “a basic knowledge and skills of English” and try especially to develop production skills (often in a rote manner). My own interpretation of the goal is nurturing a “foundation”, or what supports, children’s communicative competence not only in English but also in Japanese. What I mean here is a willingness to overcome difficulties when faced in a communicative situation where children have trouble understanding others or expressing themselves. My opinion is that the majority of teaching methods including what has been adopted in the Eigo-note fail to achieve this aim because there is an over emphasis in building speaking skills (mostly with rote practice). I personally think that more emphasis should be placed on listening, and activities should be meaningful with more attention given to the interests of 5th and 6th grade children. I also stress the need for schools to set up clear goals for their EA program based on their school educational goals, which are based on holistic or whole person education. There is a need to develop new approaches for EA that fit into the philosophy of elementary school education in general and can also play a role in achieving the educational goals. What we are trying to do is to educate children who are willing to take risks and overcome difficulties in communicative situations, children who actively cooperate with each other, and children who are inquisitive rather than being passive learners.

Many teachers have expressed a better understanding of EA, but I must admit developing activities and lessons and also building the teachers’ self confidence to conduct such lessons on their own is a time consuming process. This is a big issue I face myself along with the teachers I work with. However, I have also met many elementary school teachers who are very creative and challenging in the scope of trying to develop meaningful EA programs.

Tom Merner is a part time instructor at Showa Women's University attached elementary school and lecturer at Reitaku University and Tokyo International University. He is also a teacher trainer and adviser for various elementary schools and city boards of education.

Catherine Oki
I teach at a private Elementary School, where English is taught from first grade. I will explain about our program, the curriculum, what has worked and not worked, and what I have come to believe is important.

Each class has 40 students and is team-taught by teachers specifically hired to teach English. We do not teach with homeroom teachers. While the homeroom teachers' intimate knowledge of their students would be useful, we have found that communicating with them and building our own relationship with the students has helped to compensate.

Our curriculum is self-made. Currently we are revising the curriculum for the 2010 school year. To begin each teacher reflects on what worked with the students they taught this year. Next, we think of new ideas/language that we believe would fit in well to expand or replace parts of the current curriculum. Last, as a department we meet to give feedback and exchange ideas. This has been a positive process, allowing us the flexibility to choose what we think is best for the students and to share our collective experience.

This was not always the case, however. At one time we followed textbooks chosen from a publisher. While easier, teachers felt constrained by the content and therefore thought the classes weren’t student-centered enough. Hence, a new curriculum and original materials were made, sometimes supplemented with songs, pictures, etc from published textbooks. This change has allowed us to go at a pace that is comfortable. We don’t feel like we have to rush through to finish the book in one year, but instead can go at a rate that makes sense for the students’ progress.

Making our own songs, cards, stories, power point slides, etc to support our chosen themes and topics has definitely made more work for us. On the other hand, it has allowed the students to learn language selected with their current level, knowledge, and likes in mind. In the end, we teachers are enjoying teaching more, feeling satisfied with our choices, while also knowing that when we are unsatisfied we can change to different language or themes.

Officially we are not teaching literacy, but it has come naturally into our program as we read to students and we see their interest in text increase. Phonics is taught and students in the lower grades spend time blending sounds. The school has supported our efforts to introduce more books and we hope to develop better literacy skills as students age, while still working on communication.

Ultimately, our goal is to help students feel comfortable using English to talk about themselves and learn about others. We encourage them to do so by providing opportunities for them to use their English. Students can participate in a Discovery Trip overseas, and this year we began working with foreign students from our affiliate college who spend time talking with students in class. Scheduling was the biggest challenge, but we hope to try again and improve next year.

Also, the school has been supportive of different projects, for example we have been researching the effect of class size and achievement in English. While the project is in its nascence, we appreciate the support. Additionally, the school encourages our running an After School English program, which we want to expand.

In our After School English (ASE) program, 1st and 2nd graders can come for additional English classes once a week. Here we place more emphasis on phonics and have created a Graded Reader Library. Each child can borrow one book (with CD) each week. We also focus on functional language, getting students to ask for what they want, or tell us about something that they enjoyed or disliked. Even small phrases like, “Yummy” or “Yucky” fit with our ASE goals.

In sum, we believe that planning the curriculum with our students in mind, offering them opportunities to use what they have learned, and exposing them to books are important. We are still discovering how best to do this, but giving teachers more control to make decisions about content and direction, in my opinion, has given us more stake in the outcomes and I personally feel greater job satisfaction and motivation to do my best.

Catherine Oki has been teaching in Japan for over a decade. While currently teaching at a private elementary school in Kyoto, she enjoys teacher training and has trained teachers in Japan and Vietnam. Storybook reading, literacy, and Action Research are among her other interests. Catherine has her MA in Teaching English to Young Learners from the University of York in England.

Myron Wright
MEXT gave a directive for all teachers to have 30 hours of in-service training in English during the current school year and the upcoming one.  Many schools have used 5-minute one-point lessons once a week as part of the regular morning staff meeting to build up time towards this requirement.  I have also done several after school teacher training sessions.  I was talking with a principal after one of these sessions and he thought that it would take another year for the teachers to get ready.  I suggested that it will take at least another 5 years before most teachers have rotated through a year or two of actually running weekly classes since only a third of them will be doing it in any given year.

For the upcoming year, our BOE has "strongly suggested" that all schools schedule 30 hours of English class for the upper grades.  Obihiro has had 2 full-time ALTs exclusively for elementary schools since 2001.  But with 2 teachers divided among 26 schools, there was never enough time for an organized program as very few of them did English classes when the ALT wasn't there.  That has changed to some extent this year but most of the schools were scheduling 10 - 15 classes this year.

I think the largest stress factor for HRTs now is that they don't feel that they can run an English class in English - and they are right.  My usual advice to them is that they should take it slowly and do what they are able to in English.  Instead of cramming all that "classroom English" before the start of the program, learning 1 or 2 new phrases every week - and using them.  They should think of themselves as co-learners with their kids and emphasize that they are learning this together with them.  I also encourage them to take English out of the English class and into the rest of the day in little ways - saying days and dates in the morning meeting, page numbers, exercises in PE - in English.  Making it a normal function of everyday school life instead of a special case will help bring down the anxiety factor for both teachers and students.

Hailing from Iowa, USA, Myron Wright has been teaching English in Obihiro, Hokkaido since 1993.  He has been teaching in the City's elementary schools for 9 of his 12 years with the BOE in addition to running Wright English School.

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• Classroom Management (1)
• Classroom Resources
• Elementary School English (1)
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• Very Young Learners

• What is happening now at the elementary school(s) you are involved with regarding the implementation of English Activities?

• What is happening now at the elementary school(s) you are involved with regarding the implementation of English Activities?
    - michael eckstein