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Teach English in Chengwuxiannanluji Zhen - Heze Shi

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Learning English often has its challenges for students who have no other language that serves as a barrier, as a result, I can only assume it is doubly hard for students, of any age, who have a native language that’s sometimes extremely different in structure and usage. I am of the view that these problems can be dealt with if the teacher understands the causes and the culture from which these students come to the classroom. The selected country is Japan and my focus will be on students between the ages of 15 and 18. I selected this country and these students because I have first-hand experience teaching them in Japan. The problems to be discussed are: differences in language structure, cultural norms, teaching methodology and attitudes to learning the language. One of the main challenges is the differences in the language structure. The first difference is the writing systems. In English we use the alphabet, but in Japanese they use Kanji (Chinese characters), Hiragana and Katakana and sometimes Romaji (English Alphabet). In essence, Japanese people generally do not use Romaji, so they find it difficult to read English words at times. The second difference is the pronunciation of words. Words in Japanese generally have a consonant vowel combination. They speak in syllables (o/ha/yo/go/za/i/ma/su-good morning). However, in English pronunciation is not solely based on the letters that are present but on their combination in the word. No Japanese word will have two consonants beside each other, therefore words like ‘street’ become difficult for them to pronounce. The third difference is the grammatical structure of sentences. In Japanese, sentences have a subject-object-verb word order, while English sentences have a subject-verb-object order (Frankfurt International School, n.d). This simple difference makes learning and communicating in English challenging for Japanese ESL learners. These differences generally affect Japanese ESL learners because they have very little exposure to English use and few opportunities to use the language. The second main issue that Japanese ESL learners have is their cultural norms. In Japan, respect is shown between the elderly and younger people, people in authority and subordinates through the language they use, not their tone or facial expressions. The language used to communicate with each person changes based on the speaker and the listener. However when native speakers of English communicate, factors such as tone, and facial expressions affect how we communicate with our elders and leaders. These differences make it difficult for Japanese speakers to communicate with English speakers because there is a struggle to understand the right words to choose and their tone when they speak. I have had experiences where teachers speak to me in English and say ‘You had better not do that.’ The use of ‘had better’ implies that I had done something negative which required scolding, however that was not the case. While we have specific words to be used to express meaning and feelings, we use our tone more than our language when we communicate. This cultural difference makes it difficult for Japanese ESL students to communicate with English speakers effectively as they are not sure how they should say what they need to say without seeming confrontational. The third main challenge is the teaching methodology and attitudes to learning English. I decided to pair these two because from this course and my personal experiences, I have realized the connection between how we teach and student’s motivation. In Japan, there is strict focus on using the textbook in schools. Students are hardly given exposure the authentic or original materials. Assessment is basically one task sheet given to all classes and then the same task sheet is edited for major exams. The textbook only method of teaching creates a boring classroom environment which causes students to lose interest in the subject. In my team-teaching classes, students become alive because they are getting opportunities to communicate in more authentic and unique ways. In the classes with the Japanese teacher of English, the students are not challenged because they do mainly writing tasks either from the textbook or from the task sheet. While the task sheet, has a variety of tasks, i.e. vocabulary, comprehension, true or false and sometimes essay writing, giving it to students for every unit makes it hard to challenge students and assess their English levels effectively. From my experience even students who don’t think they will need English in the future actively participate during the team-teaching classes. The teachers need to adjust their teaching styles if they expect to see a change in the English grades and make the classes more student-centred to increase student motivation. Consequently their attitude to learning the language will improve. Having experienced teaching in a second language classroom, I have gained first-hand experience of the issues students may face. There are many issues that can affect students’ ability to learn English, however as teachers we can eliminate many of them. The language structure of Japanese could be used to highlight the differences in English and teachers can design activities that will help students to write simple sentences in English to show the basic structure; by doing this students will get practice. One’s culture cannot change, nevertheless, we can help students to understand what factors affect meaning when communicating in English instead of focusing solely on language. Finally, this course has taught me a myriad of things about the importance of using varied teaching methods in the ESL classroom so that students can feel comfortable and motivated to study English. The teaching method used in Japan must change if the students’ attitude are to be more positive and welcoming. These are the difficulties that high school Japanese ESL learners face and as teachers we can do a lot to make teaching and learning English less complicated for ourselves and our students.


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