Teaching Essay
Every spring I have to pen an essay - I call it my “English Teaching Essay” - as one of the documents I must present to Tokyo public high schools for my new contract. I’ve written before about this annual need to prepare an essay. It’s a little vague - it might be an exposition of why I want to teach English in Japan, or why I want to teach English specifically in Tokyo high schools, or my philosophy of education in general, or of my philosophy of English education in particular. I might have been told once, long ago, but these days I am just asked for my “essay,” with no reminder of what the essay is supposed to be. One thing I am sure about is that 500-words is its prescribed length. That’s not a lot of space to explain one’s philosophy. One more thing is that I cannot simply re-submit the same essay year after year. I tried doing that and was told I need to write a new one every year. I don’t think my philosophy changes so much from one year to the next that it warrants an entirely new essay. I think my reasoning changes, matures and improves over the years, but not my underlying principles. So, I have to find ways to restate much of what I’ve said before in ways that satisfy Japanese.
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It’s a great privilege to be able to work with young people. They are fun. I unavoidably feel a close connection to my students, as if they are my children, and I enjoy watch them grow at school - grow academically, physically, socially. And I enjoy knowing that, even though my presence is small, I am a part of their lives. So, I hope to develop in them good memories of their time in my classes, and good memories of me. In the future they might forget my name, but I hope they never forget my personality. It saddens me when I see students who are struggling in school, or struggling with English, and who have decided to make no effort.
As a teacher I am always thinking about the juxtaposition of the academic content of my English lessons, the students’ motivations, and sheer enjoyment. School should be fun. English lessons should be fun. It is important for me to have fun at school, and I have to believe that energy and passion on my part will have a positive effect on my students - at least in some way. If I am enjoying myself, then it increases the chances that the students will enjoy themselves, have a positive experience, and remember what we do in class.
English is a mandatory subject in Japanese high schools. So, to motivate students, I like to feature functional language - language that they can use or that relates to their everyday lives - and language that remains within their appropriate range, delivered in a slow, repetitive manner for easy listening. Of course, challenging students with vocabulary and grammar is important, but only to an extent, because beyond a certain point they are prone to ignore me and what I am trying to do. I disagree with what some foreign teachers try to teach in the name of “real” language. Some “real” everyday English is just bad, useless and ridiculous. I want to avoid that.
I present topics or themes that reflect everyday situations, and then introduce vocabulary to go with the topic. I guess I am more concerned with topics and vocabulary than with grammar, thinking that identifying a language situation (the topic) and applying vocabulary to it makes for more successful communication than using perfect or complex grammar.
Different Japanese schools have different systems. Sometimes I am free to design and teach my own lessons, and the Japanese teacher is there to help me. Other times, I am there to assist the Japanese teachers with their lessons. I only want to be helpful and positive, and never get in the way or annoy the Japanese teachers.
The school year is busy and there is lots to do. Sometimes the teaching schedule is unexpectedly changed. I am often thinking about time. How much time do we have? How much time does a topic or a project - like speech contests - require? What is my next topic? What shape does my curriculum have? Or, if the Japanese teacher is using a textbook, what is the next chapter? I like a lot of repetition and review to help students see the shape of the curriculum. The English curriculum is not just one senseless, difficult thing after another. There is a shape to our lessons, leading towards a goal. Guiding students to see that is a challenge. But I think that seeing the ultimate goal must help them in individual lessons, if they understand what I am doing, and why.