Japanese High Schools

  Leslie is a Canadian English teacher at a junior high school in the Japanese countryside. In this TESOL review, Leslie tells us she is looking to open her own English language day care centre at her home and with this in mind she took the 120-hour certificate course with ITTT as well as the 50-hour young learners course to bring her qualifications up to date. Hopefully for Leslie this will be the first step on a rewarding career as the owner of a successful English language school in Japan. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I am in my 3rd year of working in the countryside of Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in public elementary and junior high schools. An ALT's official job description is to be the assistant to a Japanese Teacher of Language (JTL). In my experience, especially in elementary schools, the ALT is not seen as an assistant but as "the English teacher" since the regular homeroom teacher has no training or experience with ESL. In most cases, the ALT has a degree in a field unrelated to teaching and has no qualifications. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Carl S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. At the moment, English in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Change is coming to the way that English is taught in Japanese public schools. The changes to the curriculum by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) increase the teaching of English at all levels of schooling. The goal of this change is, in the words of Ikuko Tsuboya-Newel, founder and chair of Tokyo International School, “The government has decided that beginning in 2020 all high school graduates must achieve a level of English equivalent to B1” (“Why do Japanese have trouble learning English?”, The Japan Times, October 29, 2017). To achieve that goal, high school entrance exams are expected to include more testing of productive skills in English. Therefore, junior...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences If you ever find yourself driving in French Canada, you will be stopped by stop signs that say ‘arrêt’, which is stopped in French. Almost all drivers in North America would know that this means stop because it’s the same octagon red stop sign. In Japan it’s very different, stop signs are triangular with Japanese script on them but, beneath the Japanese, you can find English subtitles which read ‘stop’. In fact, if you travel anywhere in Japan, the majority of signs and announcements related to travel are offered in Japanese and English. English has been taught in Japanese schools since the American occupation after World War Two. However, according to an EF English Proficiency Index in 2017,...  [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 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 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 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]

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Alumni Experiences Formal English education first took root in Japan with the creation of the first English schools in 1865 and has since steamrolled into an aggressive effort by the government to produce an English-proficient population. The Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) was established to introduce native speakers into English classrooms, and English instruction continues to become mandatory for increasingly younger students in primary schools. Despite these efforts, an English Proficiency Index conducted by the organization English First gave Japan a “low proficiency” score, with the island country lagging not just the multicultural countries of Singapore and Malaysia but also its East Asian neighbors China...  [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 TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas For the past four years, I have worked in Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) of English. Before this, I had limited experience operating in a conventional classroom, teaching young learners. I trained adults who were self-motivated and designed curricula for vocation institutions. Now, outside of my expertise, here I am teaching at a junior high school – my base school and an elementary school. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Aeika P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The city in which I live is very rural, farming and fishing are traditional...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Destinations Teaching Ideas Japan is a country facing rapid change. Due to an aging population and a scarcity of workers, Japan is opening its borders to foreigners, many of whom speak English. This, along with the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, has led to an increase in demand for English teachers. I currently work in Japan, and have had the experience of teaching English to high school Japanese students for the past year. Over the course of this year, I’ve learned of many problems that students in Japan face when learning English. Of those, the top three problems for students in Japan are pronunciation, shyness, and large class sizes. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Kaavya P. The phonology of the...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In this essay I will be discussing the problems for young Japanese learners of English, and what problems Japanese learners often encounter as well as explaining some of the reasons why teachers can run into problems while teaching in Japan. I will be referring to the book “The Smart Guide to Teaching English in Japan’ by Charlie Moritz and Martin Bragalone, as well as drawing from my knowledge and experiences of studying and volunteering in Japan. Japan can be a challenging but rewarding country to work in, despite stereotypes of Japanese people being polite and studious so it is important to consider that reality can be different when teaching in Japan. When TEFL teachers aim to teach in Japan, the most...  [Read more]

1. Introduction 2. Benefits of Teaching English in Tokyo 3. Qualifications and Requirements 4. How ITTT Can Help You Are you passionate about teaching English as a foreign language? Do you dream of exploring the vibrant city of Tokyo while sharing your knowledge with eager learners? If so, then teaching English in Tokyo could be the perfect opportunity for you. This bustling metropolis offers a unique cultural experience, along with a high demand for English language teachers. By choosing to teach in Tokyo, you can immerse yourself in Japanese culture, gain valuable teaching experience, and make a positive impact on the lives of your students. Teaching English in Tokyo comes with a wide range of benefits. Firstly, Tokyo is a city that seamlessly blends traditional Japanese culture with...  [Read more]

Maddy Payne Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Assistant Language Teachers in Japan come from different countries worldwide, bringing different kinds of English with them. In my experience, American English is often the most sought-after version of English. Some countries highly value Language Teachers from the USA, which often matches their American-style textbooks and resources. Sometimes people are even overlooked for job opportunities due to their Australian accent and British English background. Well, Japan is no different in this regard. Many Japanese schools hold American English in high regard, so what is it like being an Australian-English teacher in Japan? It's no secret that Japanese...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Japan is well known for its unique culture, and history. As an island nation, it was isolated from the rest of the world until the mid-19th century when the country had to open itself to trade with western powers of the time. It was then when the English language made its way into the Japanese educational system. English spread quite rapidly, as the government saw the new language a way to catch up with the west. And, in 1873 English became the language of instruction in universities. However, due to various political reasons including the establishment of a standardized Japanese language system the urge to learn English had declined. Today in modern Japan, English is widely spread throughout the country, and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Many challenges come with teaching English in Japan that is unique and not innately obvious to some people. In addition to the more universal challenges of learning a new language, there are inherent cultural obstacles that English learners must overcome in Japan as well as several problems with the current course of study that is being taught. However, English teachers should do their best to work within the limits of the system to foster an interest and passion for language that lives on outside the classroom and beyond the school years of learners. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Issei E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Etienne Van Rooyen TEFL Information Alumni Experiences There are three types of senior high schools in Japan. Each senior high school (grades 10, 11, and 12) has a different purpose and students attend it. Understanding this helps us learn how English language learning in Japan is differently yet similars each school. With this knowledge, as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) you can adapt your lessons plans, materials and style to fit your school/s. There are three main types of high schools in Japan with sub-categories: Note: There are also Special Needs schools, which teach students with physical and mental disabilities. These schools will be covered in another blog post. Purpose: These schools focus on intense academic...  [Read more]

1. Introduction 2. Teaching English in Japan 3. Qualifications and requirements 4. Benefits of teaching English in Japan Are you considering a career in English education? Teaching English in Japan can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience. In this guide, we will explore the opportunities available for English teachers in Japan, the qualifications and requirements needed, and the benefits of teaching in this unique and culturally rich country. Japan is a popular destination for English teachers from around the world. With a high demand for English language education, there are numerous opportunities for both experienced teachers and those new to the field. Whether you are interested in teaching in public schools, private language institutes, or as a private tutor, Japan offers a variety...  [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 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]