How To Teach English To Japanese Students

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Daisy C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. One problem facing many Japanese students learning English is differentiating between countable and uncountable nouns. In the Japanese language, the same word is often used for ‘much’ and ‘many’. In English, ‘much’ is used to describe countable nouns, and ‘many’ is used to describe uncountable nouns. A problem facing many EFL learners, especially Japanese learners, is idioms. The English language has thousands of idioms, which are used in everyday life. These are difficult for the learner to understand the meaning of, and to remember how...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Japan is an island nation and is a recognized homogenous society with a very small percentage of foreign permanent residence and more than half of the adult population lacks the necessary skills to speak English proficiently. Because of this, English as a Second Language is in high demand with young learners being a focus group in Japan. English is taught in the school environment during nearly all of a child’s primary education years, but this, unfortunately, doesn’t translate to a proficient English-speaking Japanese population. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Payton P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Children as young...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching English as a foreign language can be an intimidating task, especially for non-native English speaking teachers. This is true for many of my coworkers who are homeroom teachers at elementary schools in Japan. English has recently become a formal subject in elementary schools here and many homeroom teachers are intimidated by the sudden responsibility to teach a language they are not fluent in. Many feel that native speakers are better English teachers since native speakers have natural pronunciation and excellent command of the language. Co-teaching with a native speaker can put added pressure on homeroom teachers to speak perfect English in front of their students. Therefore many homeroom teachers feel...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Throughout high school and college, I mainly focused on learning how to speak Japanese as my second language. Unlike English, Japanese is a fairly phonetic language. Two of its three writing systems, hiragana and katakana, are phonetic. This makes it easy for foreigners to learn because each syllable, also known as sound clusters in some circles, is almost always said exactly how it is spelled. The third writing system, kanji, is not and, as such, is much more difficult for foreigners to learn because kanji are essentially pictures that describe their meaning. They are much more difficult to learn and use in everyday speech. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nicole H. Please note that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Japan is a nation that has tried to increase its citizens’ English ability, especially with the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games being held in their country. However, progress has been slow and not fruitful. There are various reasons for this slow stagnation of the nation’s English abilities such as the larger academic system and access to proper education in rural areas. However, I will focus on three main hurdles that Japanese learners of English must face that can impede their English education. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Michael H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. These are the differences in phonology between...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Japan is a developed country, with well above 126 million inhabitants, that during the past decade has been gaining more and more popularity as a destination for travelers and as a residence for people from all kinds of countries. Yet its inhabitants often seem to struggle with gaining English language proficiency. In this essay, I’ll try to resolve the question, which problems students in Japan typically encounter when attempting to learn English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Philipp S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first aspect of this issue is probably the most obvious one. The differences in grammatical...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have taught in a Japanese high school for the past four years as an assistant language teacher, which gives me a particular insight into the problems and advantages of EFL in that area. This will naturally require some generalizations. Individuals have very different problems from one another, but broader shared issues do crop up. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate William L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For context, I work in two Japanese high schools as an assistant language teacher in Toyama prefecture. I go to one school four days a week, which caters to students who can only study part-time. I also work at a farming...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences What’s the most difficult part of learning a new language? Is it writing? Perhaps it’s the reading or memorizing new vocabulary? Well for some it’s speaking the new language, specifically when it comes to pronunciation. Every language has its unique ways or pronouncing their vowels and constants as well as how they form their sentence structure. Especially this write up will focus on Japanese English as a Second Language (ESL) students and the difficulties they face while learning English and its pronunciation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zachary B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, it helps to understand a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This essay seeks to explain how the Japanese ‘Katakana’ and ‘Romaji’ alphabets cause barriers to the introduction of English education in Japanese elementary schools. It will look at how these alphabets affect the pronunciation, writing, and reading abilities of Japanese students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ethan M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The main two, ‘Hiragana’ (the base Japanese writing system) and ‘Kanji’ (Chinese characters), are not relevant to English. The remaining two, ‘Katakana’ (used for ‘borrowed’ words from other languages) and ‘Romaji’ (Roman letters) are often used...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have been teaching in Japan for over 12 years in three different locations ranging from the southernmost part of Hokkaido to the southern island of Kyushu, where I presently reside. The youngest students I have had were children not even two years of age, whereas my older students were in their seventies. This is a very common situation for those who teach here in Japan; a country where the English boom occurred not too long after they rebuilt their nation following the Second World War. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Andrew W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The Japanese are in love with western culture, especially that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning a second language can be difficult and depending on the learner’s mother tongue, it can present challenges unique to a certain group of people. More specifically, there are several unique challenges for Japanese native speakers who are learning English and vice versa. English can be difficult for Japanese native speakers for various reasons such as difficulty distinguishing certain sounds, the use of katakana to teach English words, and drastically different sentence structure. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Justin W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When speaking English, it is vital to be able to distinguish...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There can be a lot of difficulties a teacher might face in the future lesson. You might have to manage a class without any help or you might have students from different nationalities, ages, interests or so on. I believe, however, that most of the problems you might have would be solved if you planned the lessons carefully in advance. There are some reasons to support my idea. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Eri S. First, you can find what you should exactly do in a lesson as a part of a whole course by planning the lesson in advance. Otherwise, you go forward with your lesson aimlessly and you might lose sight of the final goal of the lesson. It is important to understand what the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learners from Japan have to face cultural issues as well as phonetic problems when learning English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Susanne W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Like in many other Asian countries, Japanese students are used to ex-cathedra teaching, rather than actively participating and contributing to the lessons. One of their biggest fears is to ‘lose face’ in front of others, which not only means losing their own face by making mistakes. Giving a correct answer and thereby letting all the other students literally lose their face for not knowing or expressing the right answer is almost worse. Another...  [Read more]

1. Introduction 2. Benefits of Teaching English Remotely 3. Qualifications and Requirements 4. How ITTT Can Help You Teaching English remotely has become increasingly popular, especially with the rise of online learning platforms and the demand for English language skills worldwide. If you're a qualified English teacher looking to expand your reach and teach Japanese students remotely, ITTT (International TEFL and TESOL Training) can provide you with the necessary tools and support to make this a reality. There are numerous benefits to teaching English remotely, especially to Japanese students. Firstly, remote teaching allows you to connect with students from around the world, providing a diverse and enriching teaching experience. Additionally, teaching remotely gives you the flexibility...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Japan is a Pacific Island nation whose history is marked by periods of nationalism and seclusion, as the Japanese government closed the borders to international trade. The lack of foreign influence in Japan has enabled a unique culture to flourish and the population to remain nearly 98% homogenous, meaning nearly everyone that lives in Japan is Japanese. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Andrew C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Within the past hundred years, government policy has changed and Japan has opened its borders to trade and tourism, becoming a major global economy and popular international tourist destination...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my experience teaching elementary and junior high school level English in Japan, several different pronunciation problems appear frequently. The Japanese phonemic inventory is smaller than English’s phonemic inventory, and the sounds present in each language differ from each other quite dramatically. Because of this, it can be difficult for native Japanese speakers to learn and master English pronunciation, but there are a few teaching techniques that can help students overcome this difficulty. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vladlena H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Several consonants are difficult for native Japanese...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A large number of obstacles can arise for the students when learning a foreign language. Some of these problems are related to the contrast between the mother language and the learned language. About the differences between L1 and L2, there is plenty of research in the field of contrastive linguistics. Moreover, regarding that topic, many papers can be found comparing English to Japanese with the aim to address the problems of Japanese learners of English. However, other predicaments with the apprehension of the L2 can develop when teachers underestimate the importance of the cultural dimension of the language taught. Concerning that particular impediment, less scientific literature exists. In this essay, the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This piece will discuss the difficulties faced by Japanese learners of English regarding English pronunciation and suggest methods to help learners in different age groups overcome them. It posits that most difficulties stem from the differences in phonology between the English alphabet and the Japanese kana system. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Niall M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. While the English alphabet is phonemic, with each letter representing a single sound, kana is syllabic, with most characters representing a consonant followed by a vowel. This means that Japanese speakers may add vowels onto the end of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I first decided to take this TEFL course because I am currently teaching English in rural Japan. I plan and execute English lessons for Junior High School students, as well as serve as a cultural representative of my country and foster cultural exchange. Here's the catch though - I don't speak Japanese. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gwendolen J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I've had to think a lot about how to get students to like me and the subject I teach without relying on verbal communication. I don't know enough Japanese to convey my outgoing personality, or to make jokes, or to ask questions about their interests....  [Read more]

Laura Payne Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas I am currently working as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan. Before I began this job I assumed that because Japan has a largely homogeneous population, all of my classes would be monolingual. However, I was wrong in this assumption. In addition to my Japanese students, I have many students who are Brazilian or Filipino. These students largely do not use Japanese as their mother tongue and have to learn both English and Japanese as a second language. This diverse student population, in addition to my work experiences and studies, has taught me a lot about working with both monolingual and multilingual classes. In the few monolingual classes that I teach, it is fairly easy to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences During my stay in Japan, Japanese people often told me how they can’t communicate in English despite studying the language for six or more years in school. In Japan, students in junior and senior high learn English grammar and vocabulary in compulsory formal English classes. English is also taught in elementary school as foreign language activities. Yet despite spending several hours in English classes, many Japanese people graduate high school with poor English communication skills. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rachel M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. One of the issues that hinder the Japanese people’s ability to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a young child, I was, for some reason, obsessed with the idea of learning French. I tried a couple of languages, including Finnish at some point, but kept going back to French. I have no idea why because I was never exposed to the culture or the language itself at that age. I doubt I even knew anything about the country itself. I think I assumed learning French would make me sound smarter but, the joke's on younger me, I have no skill in French and never have. I tend to struggle with romance languages in general. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nicole H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When I was in high school, my...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Next year, Japan will host the thirty-second Olympiad in the capital city of Tokyo. To correspond with the timing of the 2020 Olympics, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (hereafter MEXT) has laid out a plan for the reform of English education to meet the future needs of Japanese students in a globalized world. However, this plan presents several challenges for current and future learners of English in the Japanese educational system. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Philippa K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The thrust of MEXT’s plan is to roll back English education in Japan so...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Doneika D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I am currently an English teacher living in Japan. I teach both Elementary and Junior High School English Language. Japan’s government allows the students to start learning English sometimes as early as Kindergarten. Most Elementary schools have a designated ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) that possesses a native level of English. Even though English is a compulsory subject in Japanese Junior High and High Schools, these students struggle with achieving even daily conversational English. In this summative task, I would like to highlight the two...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In this blog post, our TEFL graduate shares their thoughts on how to implement the MI theory in your EFL class. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas English has many versions around the world. Our TEFL graduate tries to explain how to choose the best option to teach. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In this blog post, our TEFL graduate gives a piece of advice on lesson planning. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What are the benefits of being an active reader? Find out in this blog post and learn how to help your students fall in love with...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is causing many problems in Asian countries which can be seen just by the high demand for English teachers - including ESL teachers. One of the countries is Japan, a country with a good economy and a society well known for their kindness and politeness, but unfortunately also for the low number of English speakers. There are many reasons why English is likely to pose problems in Japan but there are many possibilities to improve the English lessons to offer lessons that help Japanese students to achieve a higher English level. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Eileen Cathrin B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. So why...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Japan is a country continuously changing at a rapid pace largely due to globalization and marketing. With its growing popularity and necessity, difficulties are sure to arise for people learning English and specifically, in Japan. To fully understand all the problems learners face in Japan, it is important to realize why English is so widely being studied in the first place. Firstly, students must study English for 6 years throughout primary and high school. As well as being part of the Japanese schooling system, the advantages of being able to speak English are endless. The benefits of finding a job or being able to communicate whilst abroad are common motives. However in Japan specifically, more so than western...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences It was the last day of Japanese class and my teacher’s last day of teaching at our school. We were all standing up getting ready to bow him one last time. It was dead quiet but I could still hear sniffles around me and felt the sadness of the moment. I never thought I would care so much about a teacher leaving. To this day, the words and wisdom my Japanese teacher taught me still ring in my head. Flash forward to a few years ago, I went to Japan for the first time, after a hiatus of not studying Japanese, but amazingly I still had all the skills my teacher had taught me in high school. How did this person have such an impact on me? The answer I have come to realize is that because he truly cared about me becoming...  [Read more]

Asia Ridley TEFL Information Alumni Experiences English education in Japan has been prominent for decades and starts in elementary schools. It is in high demand as the relationship between the U.S. and Japan as well as the abundant amount of tourism. Last year straight after graduating from university in the United States, I moved to Japan and began teaching English. I was fortunate to pass the interviews and become part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme {JET}. Being an assistant language teacher {ALT} in the Japanese education system versus a conversation school has its differences. Therefore I will be diving into how one can contribute to the classroom as an ALT. In Japanese elementary schools, all the students...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Perhaps one of the most commonly used justifications for widespread English language education is "English is the global lingua franca." This statement seems to encapsulate the general sentiment towards the importance of English. With the recent advancements in technology, geographical and temporal barriers have greatly lessened and international relations are no longer restricted to certain fields such as politics and media. The average citizen can now commence personal and economic relationships with the world via the internet. And this, of course, highlights the need for a common language that will facilitate effective intercultural communication. In highly urbanized and globalized cities like Tokyo, this...  [Read more]