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Today I taught a lesson I thought would be a little challenging. As it turned out, it was, but completely not in the way that I thought it would be. But somehow I think I reached them?
Our lesson plan was about embedded sentences, which is a difficult topic. For example, “I’m glad that (I studied Spanish,)” or “I’m sorry that (your cat died.)” So I taught them a list of expressions (I’m glad that, I’m sorry that, It’s a good thing that, etc) got them to separate them into positive and negative statements, and then I taught them some vocabulary phrases, such as “I transferred schools,” “my parents got divorced,” and “I broke up with my girlfriend.” That was easy enough. After they’d learned the phrases, I divided them into two teams and held up pictures representing the phrases. If a student knew the answer, he had to stand up with his arms out like an airplane to get called on. If he was correct, he got a piece of an airplane for his team. I made some pretty sweet airplanes, by the way, complete with spoilers, rocket boosters, sweet racing stripes, and lasers. Then they practiced a dialog, and at the end we played Two Truths and a Lie, where they had to make sentences about their lives using the same “I’m __ that ______ grammar,” and their partners had to guess which sentences were true and which one was the lie.
Anyway, I focused really hard on keeping the grammar in chunks and simplifying Two Truths and a Lie because those things are hard. After the first class tripped up a little, however, I was surprised to find that my grammar lesson had worked, but they were being really shy about answering the questions, even when I was 100% positive the new the answer, and it was something easy like “I fell in love,” that they could read straight out of the book. The sweet airplane building game just wasn’t enough to make them want to raise their hands. For the next class I resolved to thoroughly explain the new words that might trip them up, especially focusing on pronunciation so they wouldn’t be afraid to try them. The next class, however, was terrible. I realized maybe it had something to do with them not wanting to stand out from the class by standing up, but I did all the other right things to make the environment safe, like allowing them to confer with their teams, check their books, etc.
The most frustrating thing about Japanese culture is that everything takes so darn long because the students need 9 invitations before they believe it really is ok to talk. It comes from a nice place – not wanting to take the opportunity to speak away from someone else - but when you’re sitting in my classroom taking 5 minutes per question on an activity that ought to take 5 minutes total, I get a little frustrated. Just break the ice! Still, I know it’s difficult and there’s cultural influence at work. I think every teacher can relate to this, but the trick of it is, after 2 minutes of awkward silence, an America kid would say something. My students pushed “wait time” to whole new limits today. Usually I just do my stuff with confidence, and the American style of the classroom combined with the students’ excitement works enough to trump the cultural obstacles. Today, however, I got some major resistance from my students and it was perplexing. Furthermore, my frustration was pushed to the next level because I had the most resistance in my troublesome first year class, and as it is I usually feel like they’re not meeting me halfway, even behind the culture mask.
So, in short, what they taught me in teacher school was right. Individuals from some cultures don’t like to stand out, which will directly impact verbal participation – sometimes it will kill it. Today was one of those days. Like I said, I think it was a combined result of scary new vocabulary, having to stand with their arms out, Japanese silence culture, and the regular old universal: fear of talking in a foreign language. Anyway, I did my best to raise confidence in the oral component, and I amended the activity so they could stand without raising their arms. I let them confer with the group first (which is always an easy trick to confidence), and still no dice.
It got me thinking – what the heck does a fun class look like in Japan? They must have them, right? You know like how in high school in the States, you bust your butt on grammar and readings and problem sets, and then every couple of weeks you’ll get a movie or a jeopardy review game? Do those exist in Japan? I don’t even know. I’ve never sat through a real Japanese class. I’ve seen examples of other Western style English classes taught in Japan, of course, but obviously that’s not the same. In order to be successful, I need to see what I’m up against. I need to witness the lecture-basis first hand. I need to see what teachers do when they think kids aren’t paying attention, I need to see what teachers do when no one answers (provided students are even asked questions during class). Do they ever even call on students to do problems?
Being part of a team teaching pair is difficult. Even if I teach my classes myself, I’m completely oblivious to what they do during their English timeslot on days when I’m not the special guest. I’ve tried asking and I’ve tried spying, and everyone is still a little shy. I’m hoping that in April when the next school year starts I can make some changes, because right now I feel limited by my lack of in-class experience. Today was a great example of that and how as a result my troubleshooting skills are weak.
But I guess, if I were these kids I’d be terrified of English class too. Obviously, I can’t take the oral component out and I can’t do anything to lessen the blow unless they are very comfortable volunteering. I have to call on people to break this ice. This goes against everything I stood for as a student. I seem to remember vowing to myself that I’d never call on unwilling students if I ever became a teacher, but that’s just impractical. Someone needs to answer; I can’t just lecture at them the whole time. What’s the right way to handle this problem?
As a teacher though I recognize that it’s my problem to solve. They’re young, they’re scared, and they’re dealing with a cultural difference. They’re just not experienced enough to know that it’s okay, even necessary, to make mistakes in language class. I have to find a way to draw the answers out of them. Tomorrow I’m going to try getting the whole class to stand up and sit down together to practice first. Warm up, break the ice, all that. I’ll make it fun. I’ll do it fast, I’ll do it slow, and I will have them flying imaginary airplanes until it’s a reflex.
This whole thing also makes me think about trying to use unifying games over competitive games. Clearly that’s more cohesive with Japanese culture, but the reality is that most of the games in this world are competitive. Especially in the culture I come from! However, it would be naive to say Japanese games aren’t competitive too, Japanese people are as competitive as anyone else. Pride, accomplishment, jealousy, and all the rest- they’re universal feelings. I think the difference is that it needs to be pitched with a different slant and in a socially sanctioned way. In fact, now that I think about it, the whole “If you don’t volunteer, I’ll call on someone” angle never made sense to me in the States. I always thought, “uh, the problem is that I don’t want to talk, so I’ll take my chances still,” but I’ve heard it work with teachers here. Maybe it has to do with the whole, “for the good of the group” mentality where if someone suspects he knows, he’ll volunteer to save face for the others.
Anyway, my teacher training came through after all. I’d brought a bunch of candy canes back from the U.S., so I decided to give them out as rewards for doing an optional homework assignment. My goal was to get students more comfortable with visiting me at my desk. I didn’t expect it to work…but it did! Within two hours from when I assigned the work, I got 13 responses from the 2 classes I taught. In fact, in my troublesome class, even though none of the girls participated at all during the class period, I got all 10 girls from class to come to me with the finished homework. It makes me feel good that, even though I felt bad about the execution of the lesson, I provided them with another way to participate. I’ve successfully navigated multiple learning styles :)
I suppose that teaches me another lesson – keep on keepin’ on, keep on diversifying. Whether they show it or not, the students enjoy my classes.
Our lesson plan was about embedded sentences, which is a difficult topic. For example, “I’m glad that (I studied Spanish,)” or “I’m sorry that (your cat died.)” So I taught them a list of expressions (I’m glad that, I’m sorry that, It’s a good thing that, etc) got them to separate them into positive and negative statements, and then I taught them some vocabulary phrases, such as “I transferred schools,” “my parents got divorced,” and “I broke up with my girlfriend.” That was easy enough. After they’d learned the phrases, I divided them into two teams and held up pictures representing the phrases. If a student knew the answer, he had to stand up with his arms out like an airplane to get called on. If he was correct, he got a piece of an airplane for his team. I made some pretty sweet airplanes, by the way, complete with spoilers, rocket boosters, sweet racing stripes, and lasers. Then they practiced a dialog, and at the end we played Two Truths and a Lie, where they had to make sentences about their lives using the same “I’m __ that ______ grammar,” and their partners had to guess which sentences were true and which one was the lie.
Anyway, I focused really hard on keeping the grammar in chunks and simplifying Two Truths and a Lie because those things are hard. After the first class tripped up a little, however, I was surprised to find that my grammar lesson had worked, but they were being really shy about answering the questions, even when I was 100% positive the new the answer, and it was something easy like “I fell in love,” that they could read straight out of the book. The sweet airplane building game just wasn’t enough to make them want to raise their hands. For the next class I resolved to thoroughly explain the new words that might trip them up, especially focusing on pronunciation so they wouldn’t be afraid to try them. The next class, however, was terrible. I realized maybe it had something to do with them not wanting to stand out from the class by standing up, but I did all the other right things to make the environment safe, like allowing them to confer with their teams, check their books, etc.
The most frustrating thing about Japanese culture is that everything takes so darn long because the students need 9 invitations before they believe it really is ok to talk. It comes from a nice place – not wanting to take the opportunity to speak away from someone else - but when you’re sitting in my classroom taking 5 minutes per question on an activity that ought to take 5 minutes total, I get a little frustrated. Just break the ice! Still, I know it’s difficult and there’s cultural influence at work. I think every teacher can relate to this, but the trick of it is, after 2 minutes of awkward silence, an America kid would say something. My students pushed “wait time” to whole new limits today. Usually I just do my stuff with confidence, and the American style of the classroom combined with the students’ excitement works enough to trump the cultural obstacles. Today, however, I got some major resistance from my students and it was perplexing. Furthermore, my frustration was pushed to the next level because I had the most resistance in my troublesome first year class, and as it is I usually feel like they’re not meeting me halfway, even behind the culture mask.
So, in short, what they taught me in teacher school was right. Individuals from some cultures don’t like to stand out, which will directly impact verbal participation – sometimes it will kill it. Today was one of those days. Like I said, I think it was a combined result of scary new vocabulary, having to stand with their arms out, Japanese silence culture, and the regular old universal: fear of talking in a foreign language. Anyway, I did my best to raise confidence in the oral component, and I amended the activity so they could stand without raising their arms. I let them confer with the group first (which is always an easy trick to confidence), and still no dice.
It got me thinking – what the heck does a fun class look like in Japan? They must have them, right? You know like how in high school in the States, you bust your butt on grammar and readings and problem sets, and then every couple of weeks you’ll get a movie or a jeopardy review game? Do those exist in Japan? I don’t even know. I’ve never sat through a real Japanese class. I’ve seen examples of other Western style English classes taught in Japan, of course, but obviously that’s not the same. In order to be successful, I need to see what I’m up against. I need to witness the lecture-basis first hand. I need to see what teachers do when they think kids aren’t paying attention, I need to see what teachers do when no one answers (provided students are even asked questions during class). Do they ever even call on students to do problems?
Being part of a team teaching pair is difficult. Even if I teach my classes myself, I’m completely oblivious to what they do during their English timeslot on days when I’m not the special guest. I’ve tried asking and I’ve tried spying, and everyone is still a little shy. I’m hoping that in April when the next school year starts I can make some changes, because right now I feel limited by my lack of in-class experience. Today was a great example of that and how as a result my troubleshooting skills are weak.
But I guess, if I were these kids I’d be terrified of English class too. Obviously, I can’t take the oral component out and I can’t do anything to lessen the blow unless they are very comfortable volunteering. I have to call on people to break this ice. This goes against everything I stood for as a student. I seem to remember vowing to myself that I’d never call on unwilling students if I ever became a teacher, but that’s just impractical. Someone needs to answer; I can’t just lecture at them the whole time. What’s the right way to handle this problem?
As a teacher though I recognize that it’s my problem to solve. They’re young, they’re scared, and they’re dealing with a cultural difference. They’re just not experienced enough to know that it’s okay, even necessary, to make mistakes in language class. I have to find a way to draw the answers out of them. Tomorrow I’m going to try getting the whole class to stand up and sit down together to practice first. Warm up, break the ice, all that. I’ll make it fun. I’ll do it fast, I’ll do it slow, and I will have them flying imaginary airplanes until it’s a reflex.
This whole thing also makes me think about trying to use unifying games over competitive games. Clearly that’s more cohesive with Japanese culture, but the reality is that most of the games in this world are competitive. Especially in the culture I come from! However, it would be naive to say Japanese games aren’t competitive too, Japanese people are as competitive as anyone else. Pride, accomplishment, jealousy, and all the rest- they’re universal feelings. I think the difference is that it needs to be pitched with a different slant and in a socially sanctioned way. In fact, now that I think about it, the whole “If you don’t volunteer, I’ll call on someone” angle never made sense to me in the States. I always thought, “uh, the problem is that I don’t want to talk, so I’ll take my chances still,” but I’ve heard it work with teachers here. Maybe it has to do with the whole, “for the good of the group” mentality where if someone suspects he knows, he’ll volunteer to save face for the others.
Anyway, my teacher training came through after all. I’d brought a bunch of candy canes back from the U.S., so I decided to give them out as rewards for doing an optional homework assignment. My goal was to get students more comfortable with visiting me at my desk. I didn’t expect it to work…but it did! Within two hours from when I assigned the work, I got 13 responses from the 2 classes I taught. In fact, in my troublesome class, even though none of the girls participated at all during the class period, I got all 10 girls from class to come to me with the finished homework. It makes me feel good that, even though I felt bad about the execution of the lesson, I provided them with another way to participate. I’ve successfully navigated multiple learning styles :)
I suppose that teaches me another lesson – keep on keepin’ on, keep on diversifying. Whether they show it or not, the students enjoy my classes.
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