foreign language dentistry
An English teacher at my school is preparing for a sabbatical in Canada. He will be studying English and teaching (leaving me with a stranger for my Tuesday morning class) and here is an excerpt from his research proposal:
…another problem is that some of my students do not think they have to make much effort studying English because they will not go to universities. In this situation I cannot expect positive attitude from them easily. However, I must make constant efforts to keep them interested in classes.
Why must he do that? Why not let them sleep if they don’t want to listen? What he’s getting at (or what he would be getting at if the poor guy hadn’t had 5 hours of sleep in 2 days) is that a language teacher must try to keep students interested because in a foreign language class active participation is imperative and also more important than it is in any other academic class. A couple of reluctant or bored students can spoil the necessary atmosphere of trust for the whole group, making even the confident students reluctant to speak.
Unfortunately passivity is as common as onsens and bamboo trees, and getting answers out of students can be like pulling teeth. A raised hand is more rare than hot spring that hasn’t been made into a bathtub. Which is why I spend most of my days trying to coax any kind of peep out of my silent subjects, and don’t much feel like any English is getting learned.
To learn a language you must use it. To use it you must form words in that language with your mouth.
Oh and by the way it helps if the JTE isn’t chatting with students while the ALT is trying to teach, but that’s a different can of worms. One that will slowly but surely be opened by and by, rest assured. I swear sometimes, I just don’t know. One year, three months.
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