Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending a workshop at 国際大学(kokusai daigaku or IUJ ; International University of Japan). In the morning, we had a presentation about a project that had for objective to make a bridge between the (somewhat distant) English I class and the OC I (oral communication) class. In the afternoon, the title of the presentation was “IT for English teaching and learning: in and out of the classroom”.
Being a big fan of IT, this presentation got me thinking about many things; some of which I’d like to discuss here today.
Lately, I’ve been trying to find ways to motivate the students to learn more English and to change their perception of English. Apparently, Japan is one of the Asian countries where English test scores are the lowest:
"...In comparison, other Asian countries belonged to bottom groups ― China came in 99th place with 76 points; Taiwan at 106th with 73; North Korea, 111th with 72; and Japan, 136th with 66. " (source: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/10/117_42399.html)
While I don’t believe that standardized tests are the best mirror of reality, it’s hard to deny that the general level of English in Japanese schools (and anywhere in Japan for that matter) is fairly low. There are probably many reasons for this: Some of them might have to do with the fairly homogenous Japanese society and the fact that most English classes are taught in a way that prepares the students for a specific test rather than real life usage… but I’m really just speculating here. The problems are probably far more complex and subtle than I can perceive and since I’m probably more an “education technician” than an education theorist, I’m still trying to find solutions to these problems even if I don’t fully understand them (which is probably not the best way to go about it).
I think one of the best approach to learning a language efficiently is to immerse ourselves in it daily; make it part of our real life.This might be difficult to do for the Japanese students because of the previously mentioned homogeneity surrounding them. Although many signs and publicities use English in their slogans and such, it’s often limited and sometimes poor English. So how can they immerse themselves?
Well, with IT of course!
Especially, with the Internet and it’s millions of online tools and resources. During the workshop at IUJ, professor Anthony Crooks exposed us to an amazing quantity of these (often free) little miracles of technology. They were organized in categories such as; course site tools, blogs, chatware, guest maps, mindmaps, podcasting, quiz makers, survey sites, voice boards, etc. Many of the suggested services I had not heard of before. So all of this is very exciting. It opens the door to tons of interesting, interactive, fun, in and out of the class activities.
Judging by the JTEs that I’ve worked with, I believe that most of them are very committed to the success of their students and are open to try new avenues to reach that goal.
I think that a high school English teacher who is interested in trying new things and wants to know what he/she should do is probably asking him/herself many questions, such as: What are the tools and where do I find them? What kind of activity should we do? What are these tools capable of? Will the students be interested/motivated? Are there any security risks? What will the students really learn? …
And these are very important questions. To answer the first one, I can thank professor Crooks for the extensive list (if anyone is interested in this list (and the great document that comes with it) contact me and maybe I can ask him if I can share it). After finding the tools and getting an overview of them, I think it’s important to experiment with them and see first hand what they can do. You want to have a good understanding of the technology so you can help students if they happen to have some difficulties using the tools.
The most important question though, is probably the last one: What will the students really learn?
Using a very fun and attractive web site or program is a waste of time if it’s not attached to a real learning objective (or competency development). I probably fell into this trap a few times… Something was really cool and I figured it could be use in my classroom, so I basically gave a tech show… It was not engaging and, beside a few more “geeky” students, most students grew immune to the wow factor of the gadgets very quickly. Today’s teenagers were born with computers in their hands, it is very difficult to impress them with technology and they take it for granted. Using technology itself is not a reward for the students. The projects need to have strong pedagogical foundations and IT, of course, is a tool and not a goal.
I think it’s also important to remember that if we ask our students to go online at home to work on class project, there is about a million more “entertaining” things for them to do on the Internet. Distractions abound. It might sometimes be difficult to get a very committed participation from them, especially if it’s “extra” work.
In January, I started to write a blog for my students (jdinkj.blogspot.com) and posted one short article every Friday with a little English tip. My goal was to give the students an opportunity to read something simple which was not a textbook. I think it is a good idea, but I barely get any readers. Maybe it’s too difficult for most of the students to read 2 paragraphs only in English with no Japanese support and they won’t go through the trouble. Maybe they just have “better” things to do. Maybe they forgot about it. Maybe what I write about is really not interesting to them… The bottom line is that it’s difficult to get the students motivated intrinsically to do “extra” work and improve their English. They need to see a bigger purpose and become willing to put all that extra effort. Our main goal is to light a fire within the students and to give them the tools to keep it alive.
Using IT opens up communication with the rest of the world. It allows the students to be in a completely English (virtual) environment. There are many real life applications of the language that can be shown to the students and they can have an impact in the real world outside of the classroom while using English. This represents a lot of possibilities. It becomes the teachers responsibility to hand pick the best ones and package them in motivating and involving projects for the students. IT is not a magic solution, but it’s a whole world of educative opportunities that should not go to waste.
