Japan: Apart from steering US economy through difficult times, finetuning strategy on two wars and resetting geopolitical equations, US President Barack Obama is also helping many Japanese students learn English. Makoto Ishiwata, who heads an English language school called Kaplan Japan, draws almost 200 students a week to his “Obama workshops.” Pupils recite Obama’s speeches [...]
Japan and United States: Students from the Yonezawa Women’s Junior College in Colorado’s sister state, Jamagata Prefecture, are staying with Littleton families this week, completing a two-week vacation and English program and enjoying learning and exposure to American culture.
Read the full story…
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
Japan: With upbeat music and the cheerful voices of fourth- and sixth-grade girl DJs, an all-English radio-style program created a festive lunchtime atmosphere one afternoon at Tezukayama Gakuen Elementary School in a tranquil residential area in Nara. The primary school, which teaches English two hours a week for first- to sixth-graders, began the English-language program [...]
Japan & United States: US President Barack Obama’s speeches are proving a best-seller in Japan — as an aid to learning English, notes Reuters. An English-language textbook, “The Speeches of Barack Obama“, has sold more than 400,000 copies in two months, a big hit in a country where few hit novels sell more than a [...]
Japan: Asahi.com notes that English, for the first time, will soon be part of the nation’s public elementary school compulsory curriculum. Beginning in 2011, one English class a week will be compulsory for fifth- and sixth-graders, according to a revision to Ministry of Education curriculum guidelines. Officially regarded as foreign language “activity” rather than as [...]
The Straits times notes that the Japanese government has set an ambitious goal of making the Japanese fluent in English, by recommending that all English classes for those aged 16 to 18 are taught mainly in that language from 2013. English teachers at senior high schools in Japan will teach their classes in English and [...]
Japan Times: Students who start to learn English as a second language from an early age expend less brain energy when using the language than those who start later, according to an article by a group of Japanese researchers published Wednesday in Human Brain Mapping, a U.S. science magazine.
Read the full story…
Post Footer automatically generated [...]
Twenty children from first to sixth grades study English together on Mondays. Progress in communication skills have been observed among the children, half of whom are autistic, according to Shozo Kobayashi, principal of the school, who initiated the English class for the children in 2007. He says, “In the increasingly globalized world, children are expected [...]
By Judy Wellsworth
In this edition of the guest writers series, Judy Wellsworth gives us the lowdown on teaching in Japan:
In Japan, the necessity for English-speaking citizens has lately risen to epic proportions. With this increase in demand, finding a job teaching English in Japan is easier than ever for foreigners who wish to head abroad. [...]
Cheers filled Fujieda City Hall one day in August, as students responded enthusiastically to an English lesson offered by an assistant language teacher. When the instructor said, “Let’s speak English!” the students shouted “Yeah!” while jumping up and down. But the “students” were not children. They were teachers playing the role of primary school students. [...]
ELT World