New research: Fun motivates low achievers but has the opposite effect on high achievers

May 30, 2010

Those who value excellence and hard work generally do better than others on specific tasks when they are reminded of those values. But when a task is presented as fun, researchers report, the same individuals often will do worse than those who say they are less motivated to achieve. The study appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The findings suggest that two students may respond quite differently to a teacher's exhortation that they strive for excellence, said University of Illinois psychology professor Dolores Albarracín, who conducted the research with William Hart, of the University of Florida. One may be spurred to try harder, while another could become less motivated. The study also suggests that those who are "chronically uninterested in achievement" are not operating out of a desire to do badly, Albarracín said. Their differing responses simply may reflect the fact that they have different goals.

"The competitive mindset, the achievement mindset becomes a huge de-motivator for those who don't necessarily value excellence as much as they value their well-being," Albarracín said. "Perhaps the reason they don't care to do well is because they want to do something else; they want to enjoy themselves -which is not a bad goal," she said.

"It's not that those with high achievement motivation always perform better," Albarracín said. "You can also get the low achievement motivation folks to perform better than the highs when you present a task as enjoyable and fun."

Click here for the full research paper.

Details of the one-day certificate courses in teaching Japanese students announced.

May 28, 2010

The Oxford University Press / David English House ETJ certificate courses in teaching Japanese students will be held for the last time this year, so if you were planning to take the course at some point, now is the time to attend. These courses havw gained a tremendous reputation over the ten years they have been run.

The details of the courses are as follows:

Dates
Sunday June 20th - Toyo Gakuen University, Tokyo.
Sunday June 27th - Seifu High School, Osaka.

Sessions
1. Reading skills - methods and applications
Rob Waring (Notre Dame Seishin University)

2. Teaching skills for listening and speaking
Alastair Graham-Marr (Tokai University)

3. Testing and evaluation
Michael Guest (Miyazaki University)

4. Personal construct psychology and its implications in the classroom
David Paul (David English House)

Certificate
To obtain the certificate, it is necessary to attend the one-day training course and write four reports based on each of the four training sessions.

Fees
ETJ members - 4,500 yen
Non-members - 5,500 yen.
(membership of ETJ is free, and you can join on the day of the course)

Click here for more information and to reserve a place on a course.

Speculation that there may have been a coup at GEOS

May 27, 2010

Let's Japan reports on speculation that the takeover of GEOS may actually have been a coup d'etat. Kusunoki, the president of GEOS was clearly against declaring bankruptcy, and the takeover by G.communication happened so quickly that it inevitably raises the questions of how long in advance the takeover had been planned and whether this planning had been without the knowledge of Kusunoki.

Let's Japan, referring to a JC-Net article, reports: 'The bankruptcy was filed with the Tokyo District Court by Hitomi Suhara and two other directors. Sitting beside Suhara at the press conference was Tabuchi. However, JC-NET notes that Tabuchi may in fact be Kusunoki's nephew, who happens to have been in charge of operations in the Chubu area, G.education's home turf. So here's the plot: Worried about GEOS's stability, Tabuchi approaches G.communication and offers to sell the company to them. We already know that an agreement was signed on April 16th. The offer to sell, however, may have been made much further in advance of the April 16 signing. G.communication may have decided to sign on the 16th after having reviewed information about GEOS' schools and sorting the schools into the ones it would keep and the ones it would close. A source says this is why GEOS' directors (Suhara and Tabuchi) could speak with such clarity about GEOS's schools during the press conference in the wake of the bankruptcy.'

Click here for the full Let's Japan report.

Ex-ELT News Editor, Mark McBennett, on 500km charity bike ride

May 26, 2010

Ex-ELT News Editor, Mark McBennett, will be cycling 500km and raising money to provide clean water to a needy family in Cambodia. If you would like to sponsor him, please click here or here (UK site). Click here for Marc's 'Japan Coast 2 Coast' site which contains his blog and more information.

Mark writes on his site: 'The idea behind Japan Coast 2 Coast is a simple one: To explore the two great rivers, and three great Mountain ranges of Japan by bicycle with a few friends and at the same time raise some money for people in desperate need of clean water. We ( Lowell, Mark and Tony) are going to cycle some of Japan`s highest highways following the trail of Walter Weston who is considered the Father of Mountaineering in Japan. We will start at the mouth of the Tenryugawa river, on the Pacific Ocean side of Japan and cycle alongside the Southern Alps, cross over the Central Alps, to near the summit of Norikura and then take in the Annual Walter Weston Festival in Kamikochi before cycling to the Japan Sea coast following the Uwakamigawa river through Hakuba to Itoigawa.

We are selling nothing, but if you like you can sponsor us per kilometer and the money will not go to us but to providing clean water to a needy family in Cambodia. This is our way of enjoying a few days exploring the beauty of our home country Japan in an eco-friendly manner while keeping in mind those lacking the most basic of life’s needs.'

Use British Council / BBC downloads and win an iPod

May 24, 2010

If you want to win an iPod, try some of the downloadable materials that are available on the British Council / BBC 'TeachingEnglish' site, and then fill in the survey on the site explaining how you use the materials in class. There is a wide range of good downloads on the site - particular lesson plans, materials to go with videos, classroom activities, quizzes...

Click here to see a list of downloads, and click here for the user survey. The survey will close on May 28 after which there will be a draw to see who has won. The British Council will announce and contact the winner in early June.

TeachingEnglish is produced by the British Council with content and editorial support from the British Broadcasting Corporation. Both organisations receive funding from the UK government for their work in promoting English, supporting English language teaching (ELT) and providing information and access to ELT products, services and expertise from the UK. All teaching material on the site is free to access.

New research - future teachers in Japan emphasize traditional social values

May 21, 2010

Edward Hoffman, a New York-based psychologist, who has been a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, has carried out research on Tokyo college graduates planning teaching or child psychology careers. The results were very different from the results of similar research carried out in America. The skills that were considered most important for Japanese children to acquire were politeness, expressing gratitude, trustworthiness, the ability to apologize, and friendliness.

Hoffman wrote in the Japan Times: 'I expected that Japanese education majors would answer more or less like their American counterparts, who, for over 25 years, have been taught that empathy and attentiveness to others are the most vital traits for social success starting in childhood. Because Japanese society is regarded by foreign researchers as highly collectivist, I also expected that teamwork would be a paramount social value among my Tokyo participants. Both expectations proved completely wrong. In fact, findings surprised even my Japanese host colleagues. Why? Because they had accepted their country's popular view that its youth have become "Westernized" or "Americanized" due to Hollywood movies, pop music and the Internet. Yet, it's now clear that such global forces, whatever their impact, haven't really altered basic — and long-standing — Japanese social values.'

Click here for the full article in the Japan Times.

Ministry of Education planning drastic changes to improve the quality of teachers

May 18, 2010

The Ministry of Education is planning drastic changes to the system for obtaining a teaching licence. The plan is to lenthen the training period for aspiring teachers to six years and include more teaching practice.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reports: 'Many newly employed teachers start working at schools without sufficient practical teaching skills and some cannot cope with different school problems, which have grown more and more complex. The Democratic Party of Japan blames the current licensing system for these problems. It also criticizes the training system for not providing sufficient teaching practice at schools and for the increase in the number of candidates who decide not to become teachers after undergoing the training at schools, which usually lasts two to four weeks.'

Mike Guest to be a trainer on the one-day certificate courses in teaching Japanese students

May 17, 2010

Mike Guest, an ELT News columnist and well-known writer for the Daily Yomiuri. will be one of the four trainers on this year's one-day certificate course in teaching Japanese students. The other three trainers will be Rob Waring, Alastair Graham-Marr and David Paul. The courses will be held at Toyo Gakuen University in Tokyo on Sunday June 20th and at Seifu High School in Osaka on Sunday June 27th.

The four sessions for this year's courses will be:

Rob Waring: Reading skills - methods and applications.

Alastair Graham-Marr: Teaching skills for listening and speaking.

Mike Guest: Testing and assessment

David Paul: Personal construct psychology and its implications in the classroom.

Registration will open soon.

Important: This year will be the last time these courses will be held, so if you were planning to attend at some point, now is the last chance to do so.

Japanese parents very keen on having English in elementary schools, but want teachers who specialize in English

May 16, 2010

'Nippon-PTA', the national association of PTAs around Japan, has carried out a survey of its members and found that the parents of children who have English activity classes at elementary school are very much in support of having these classes, but would like to see more teachers who specialize in English.

1,988 parents of 5th grade students replied to the questionnaire. 69.1% thought the English activity classes were necessary and only 8.3% thought the classes were not necessary. 58.7% of those who thought English was necessary said it was because it would help their children at junior high school, 50.3% said it was because it would encourage their children to become more interested in other countries (parents could give more than one reason when answering the questionnaire).

When asked what would make the English activity classes effective, 52.2% said that it was necessary to have teachers who were specialists in teaching English, 44.2% said that methodology that was appropriate for elementary school was important, and 42.8% said that the teachers should be native speakers of English.

Click here for the complete survey (in Japanese)

New research - Talking seriously with children is important for their language development

May 15, 2010

New research by Lotte Henrichs of the University of Amsterdam shows that the way adults approach children aged 3 to 6 years during conversations has a major influence on their language acquisition. The more that adults address children as fully-fledged conversation partners, the more likely it is that the children will acquire the kind of language they need at school - the ability to understand instructions, demonstrate their knowledge in an efficient manner, and use and understand abstract words and complex sentence structures.

The extent to which the language children need at school (academic language) is used at home was found to differ strongly between families. An essential aspect is how parents approach their children during conversations. If children are given the opportunity to make meaningful contributions to conversations, they often use characteristics of academic language proficiency naturally. In addition to this, the knowledge of academic language depends on the extent to which parents read to their children, tell them stories and hold conversations about interesting subjects.

This research seems to indicate that we should not be dumbing down our language too much when talking with children and we should engage children in conversations as equal partners.

Click here to see an overview of the research and to order a copy of Lotte Henrichs' dissertation.

Japanese universities slip in Asia rankings

May 14, 2010

The QS ranking of the top universities in Asia has just been issued. The University of Tokyo has slipped from 3rd to 5th place, Kyoto University from 5th to 8th and Osaka University from 6th to 7th. Twenty of the Japanese universities in the top 100 have declined in the rankings.

The University of Hong Kong came top followed by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the National University of Singapore and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. All Hong Kong universities either stayed in the same place or improved their ranking.

The ranking of a university is based on the following criteria - academic peer review (40%), employer review (10%), faculty/student ratio (20%), citations per faculty (20%), proportion of international faculty (5%), proportion of international students (5%). The University of Tokyo would have been top if only academic criteria had been considered.

New ELT News column: 'Get Neuro-Psyched' by Robert Murphy

May 13, 2010

ELT News would like to welcome Robert Murphy as a new columnist. He will be writing about developments in neuroscience and psychology and discussing their relevance to teaching English as a foreign language. Robert is keen for readers of ELT News to send him questions to discuss in his column. Some of the questions he already plans to discuss are: How does memory really work? How can we get our students to learn English more quickly? Is punishment ok? What do you think about grammar-translation from a neuroscience perspective? Does sleep matter? How do neurons work? Are there bad ways of raising motivation? Click here to send Robert additional questions.

Robert Murphy is a doctoral student in Cognitive Development and Applied Linguistics with over 18 years of teaching experience in Japan. He is a bilingual university instructor and the principal of Murphy School of Education. He has an MA in TEFL/TESL from the University of Birmingham. In recent years he has been working closely with professors, staff and graduates of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and their online WIDE World program, with the goal of connecting their most recent research in neuroscience, psychology, health and education to TEFL in the Japanese context.

He is the author of the OPTIMAL LEVELS series from Deeper Understanding Books. Robert is the coordinator and founding member of ETJ Kitakyushu and officer of JALT Kitakyushu.

May 14 -Virtual conference on using Apple technology in education

May 11, 2010

Macworld reports: 'If you’re a teacher, administrator, or student interested in educational technology, there’s an event to check out: Apple and MacLearning.org are co-sponsoring a virtual conference, AcademiX 2010, on the use of Apple products and technology in education. To be held on Friday, May 14, it’s the second year of AcademiX. The actual presentations will occur at Northwestern University and MIT. Six campuses will hold a Webcast of the conference, but you can register and view the talks from anywhere if you’re online.

AcademiX 2010 includes six 20-minute talks about changes in education, best teaching practices, open access, podcasting and mobile learning, distance education, and innovations in research and scholarship. MacLearning.org, organized by faculty and staff from a number of universities, is a community that promotes the open exchange of ideas about pedagogy and Apple technologies.

Click here to register for the live webcast. Registration for AcademiX 2010 is free.

The last one-day certificate courses in teaching Japanese students to be held this June

May 10, 2010

The one-day certificate course in teaching Japanese teenagers and adults will be held for the last time in June this year, so if you were planning to take the course at some point, now is the time to attend. The course, which was started by Oxford University Press and David English House in 1999 to launch ETJ, has gained a tremendous reputation over the years, and thousands of teachers have gained the certificate.

The courses this year will be held at Toyo Gakuen University in Tokyo on Sunday June 20th and at Seifu High School in Osaka on Sunday June 27th. Trainers will include Rob Waring, David Paul and Alastair Graham-Marr.

The main reason the course is being stopped is that so many teachers have now taken it. The idea is to replace it with a new event next year that is fresh and new for everybody. Details of the new event will be announced later.

The one-day course was successful in putting ETJ on the map, and almost all teachers who attend the course join ETJ so it has been one of the main sources of new members. Rob Waring and David Paul have been trainers on the course since the beginning, and Alastair Graham-Marr has been a trainer for some years.

Full details of this year's courses will be announced soon.

New research - Early exposure to TV has severe long-term effects on educational achievement and health

May 09, 2010

New research published in the May edition of 'Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine' indicates that TV has a strong negative effect on young children and raises fundamental questions about the influence of technology on children both at home and in the classroom. The implications for both parents and teachers are far reaching. Dr. Linda Pagani, the head of the research team, said: 'We found every additional hour of TV exposure among toddlers corresponded to a future decrease in classroom engagement and success at math, increased victimization by classmates, a more sedentary lifestyle, higher consumption of junk food and, ultimately, higher body mass index ...... Between the ages of two and four, even incremental exposure to television delayed development'.

Since TV exposure encourages a sedentary lifestyle, Dr. Pagani says, television viewing must be curbed for toddlers to avoid the maintenance of passive mental and physical habits in later childhood: 'Common sense would have it that TV exposure replaces time that could be spent engaging in other developmentally enriching activities and tasks which foster cognitive, behavioral, and motor development'.

Click here to see the abstract for the research paper. (the full text of the research is not free)

iPad available on May 28 - will it transform education?

May 08, 2010

The iPad will be available in Japan on May 28. It can be ordered as early as this coming Monday, but the price has not been announced yet.

There has been a lot of speculation on how much effect the iPad will have on education. e-textbooks have not really caught on yet, and the iPad could be the catalyst that changes this. The iPod and iTunes have transformed the way we buy and listen to music, and the iPhone has transformed the mobile phone industry. Will the iPad do the same with textbooks?

Buzz Garwood wrote recently in his influential 'This Week in Ed Tech' blog: 'I'm not suggesting it will ultimately be the iPad itself that will absolutely find its way into mainstream classrooms across the country - it could be a similar product by a yet-to-be-known start up company- or possibly a next-generation Kindle, who knows? But one day, I think people will attribute the iPad as being the device that unleashed digital e-book content, especially e-text books, into classrooms around the world.'

New research - To learn better, take a nap (and don't forget to dream)

May 05, 2010

It is by now well established that sleep can be an important tool when it comes to enhancing memory and learning skills. And now, a new study sheds light on the role that dreams play in this important process. Led by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the new findings suggest that dreams may be the sleeping brain's way of telling us that it is hard at work on the process of memory consolidation. The study is reported in the April 22 On-line issue of Current Biology.

'What's got us really excited, is that after nearly 100 years of debate about the function of dreams, this study tells us that dreams are the brain's way of processing, integrating and really understanding new information,' explains senior author Robert Stickgold. 'Dreams are a clear indication that the sleeping brain is working on memories at multiple levels, including ways that will directly improve performance.'

The investigators had 99 subjects spend an hour training on a computer exercise in which they were asked to navigate through and learn the layout of a complex 3D maze. Participants were then assigned to either take a 90-minute nap or to engage in quiet activities but remain awake. Five hours after the initial exercise, the subjects were retested on the maze task.

The results were striking. The non-nappers showed no signs of improvement on the second test. Similarly, the subjects who napped, but who did not report experiencing any maze-related dreams or thoughts during their sleep period, showed little, if any, improvement. But, the nappers who described dreaming about the task showed dramatic improvement, 10 times more than that shown by those nappers who reported having no maze-related dreams.

'The subjects who dreamed about the maze had done relatively poorly during training,' explains first author Erin Wamsley. 'Our findings suggest that if something is difficult for you, it's more meaningful to you and the sleeping brain therefore focuses on that subject - it 'knows' you need to work on it to get better, and this seems to be where dreaming can be of most benefit.'

Click here for the full report.

The number of children in Japan continues to decline.

May 04, 2010

The government has released figures showing that on April 1st 2010 the number of children under 15 declined by 190,000 compared to the previous year. 13.3% of the population was under 15 compared to 14.2% four years ago. This means the pressure on schools and universities will get worse over the next few years and is likely to lead to the closure of more schools.

The Japan Times reports: 'There were 8.68 million boys aged 14 or younger, compared with 8.26 million girls .... By area, Okinawa Prefecture had the greatest share of children at 17.7 percent, while Akita Prefecture had the lowest share at 11.2 percent. Tokyo was the only prefecture that saw its percentage rise from a year earlier.'Meanwhile, the aging of the population has advanced, with the average age for both men and women increasing by approximately 20 years since 1950.

The idea that Japanese students are grass eaters is catching on internationally

May 02, 2010

There has been a lot of discussion in Japan over whether the young generation in Japan are grass eaters, and this idea is increasingly catching on in the international media. The Boston Globe reported today that 'Once a voracious consumer of American higher education, Japan is becoming a nation of grass-eaters. Undergraduate enrollment in US universities has fallen 52 percent since 2000; graduate enrollment has dropped 27 percent.'

This was a repeat of a Washington Post article last month that reported: 'Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust said that when she visited Japan last month, she met with students and educators who told her that Japanese young people are inward-looking, preferring the comfort of home to venturing overseas.'

The Independent reported on Japan's Generation XX: 'In Japan some call them herbivores, and on Saturday nights they come out to graze: a perfumed army of preening masculinity. Groomed and primped, hair teased to peacock-like perfection and bodies wrapped in tight-fitting clothes, their habitat is the crowded city where they live in fear of commitment, and the odd carnivorous female who preys on them.'

ABC (The Australian Broadcasting Corporation) reported last month: 'These men are mainly in their 20s. They have no aspirations for love or material wealth or professional promotion. They like spoiling themselves with things like men's cosmetics. They're not interested in sex at all....A recent survey found that one third of Japanese men aged between 20 and 34 had never even had a girlfriend, because most weren't even interested.'

The increasingly popular international perception is that the younger generation in Japan is becoming inward looking, and not interested in studying abroad or discovering more about the world. Could this be one of the factors in the apparent declining interest in learning English?