Students organize thoughts in English
Yoko Mizui Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
The midterm examination for third-year students in the English writing class at Meiji Gakuen Senior High School in Kitakyushu comprised just two writing tasks.
The first was to write an essay of more than 80 words explaining the proverb "Too many cooks spoil the broth" with a concrete example.
The second was to write more than 100 words supporting one of the following propositions: "Japanese high school students should be allowed to bring cell phones to school" or "Japanese high school students should not bring cell phones to school."
The examination was set by their English-language teacher, Takashi Inomori, on May 25. A Japanese explanation of the meaning of the proverb was also given. When I observed his class, it was the day when students were given their test results.
Before returning the test papers to the students, Inomori explained how he had eval!uated their work: five points for discourse markers, two points for indentation and left margin, three points for the title and 15 points for the content.
He said that the more students used discourse markers, the more points they earned. In previous lessons, they had studied discourse markers such as "Let me give you two examples," "For example...," "As another example...," "Therefore..." and "For these reasons..."
"Those who got 'So what?' from me needed more explanation," Inomori said, introducing some examples that lacked further explanation to relate sentences or to lead to a conclusion. After reading two excellent works by their classmates, he returned the test papers to the students.
Then he changed to the introduction of a new assignment: "Giving directions to a stranger to a certain place in the school."
"You are going to write directions for a person who has come to Meiji Gakuen for the first time. All you can give is directions on how to get there without mentioning the place that you have in mind," he said.
He wrote ｅxpression!s to use on the blackboard such as "turn to the right/left," "take the path on your right/left until you come to...," and "go upstairs to..."
I observed another English-writing class for third-year students, whose lesson was a step ahead of the class mentioned earlier. In this class, students who had done the same assignment at home exchanged their writing with partners in a pair work exercise. They discussed what was missing or confusing in their English directions to lead the partner to a place they had in mind.
At the end of the class, Inomori told each student to bring a photo showing at least three people, including the student themselves as a small child, to the next class. The students would be required to explain to their classmates who is who in the photo in the next lesson.
Inomori introduced good and bad ｅxpression!s related to the task.
"You must try to use as many different sentence patterns as possible so that your explanation will not become monotonous," he said.
===
Comprehensive ability required
"This writing class is a kind of general study in English lessons. The various fragments students have learned in English lessons since middle school have been integrated into a product," Inomori said. "Students will get a sense of accomplishment and so will teachers."
Commenting on the writing class, third-year student Chigusa Hisatomi said: "It is very interesting and entertaining. The way Inomori-sensei says things is also interesting."
Her classmate Naoko Hashimoto agreed.
"I enjoy this class very much. I think what I learned in this class will be useful in the future," she said.
Go Yoshizawa, an English-language teacher who used to teach the writing classes, said: "Some graduates who have entered university say that what they learned in our writing class was quite useful when they had to write reports in English at universities."
Inomori said they offered students familiar topics to write about in the early stage of the first term so that students would think that writing in English was fun.
Yoshizawa said students would eagerly accept the assignment if they were interested in the topic. He added that when they had assigned the students to write under the title "If I Were a School Principal" some years ago, the same assignment was given as part of the entrance examination of Hiroshima University four months later. "I was surprised to hear that from one of my students," he said.
The school is known for sending many of its graduates to national universities and medical colleges.
"Students' writing ability improves a lot by the end of the year," said Yoshizawa, who now teaches English at Meiji Gakuen Junior High School.
Helping students acquire English skills not only for passing university entrance examinations but also for practical use in the future is the school's purpose.
"We'd like to cultivate students' English ability so that they can apply it to university study," Principal Masayo Saito said.
"I think it's import!ant that Japanese scholars and doctors can write an English thesis and make a presentation in English at international academic conferences in any field," she said.
The English writing classes are formed according to degree of advancement. The third-year students in six classes are divided into three levels--beginners, intermediate and advanced. Each writing class consists of students from three homerooms.
Inomori makes it a rule to change students' seating positions every week so that students from different homerooms will mix well.
Meiji Gakuen Junior High School, a middle school, and Meiji Gakuen Senior High School, a high school, share one principal and a six-year unified English education curriculum. Meiji Gakuen also has a primary school where English has been a subject since 2000. Native English-speaking teachers teach English at the primary school twice a week from the first year.
For middle school students who come from outside primary schools, the school provides phonics and pronunciation lessons for a month before actually teaching them from a textbook. on average, of about 250 middle school students in a grade, about 130 students come from outside primary schools.
"Students who come from outside primary schools will catch up with other students from our affiliated primary school in terms of English proficiency when they become second-year students, except in terms of their listening ability," Inomori said.
===
Sight translation
When I visited an English class for third-year students at the middle school, Yoshizawa was introducing a new chapter called "Trick or Treat." Before starting the lesson, students took a short vocabulary quiz, and then worked in pairs to check the results.
In introducing the new chapter, Yoshizawa told students to put slashes in the English text where they thought it was appropriate to pause while reading, and asked them to what extent they understood the meaning. Then he distributed printouts in which the English text and its direct Japanese translation were written vertically. He first had students listen to a tape of a native speaker, while letting them read along in both English text and its rough Japanese translation.
After explaining about Halloween and jack-o'-lanterns, Yoshizawa told students to fold the printout in half vertically and follow him in reading the English text in chunks, while he translated it into Japanese. Then he told students to read only the Japanese parts and repeat the English after him.
The students were not allowed to look at the text for the third time in repeating Yoshizawa's English reading. Yoshizawa told them to imagine the scene while they were listening and speaking English.
Yoshizawa said this kind of sight translation was standard procedure in the class and that giving students vocabulary homework was also common practice "as we expect students to review the lesson, not prepare for the lesson."
At the end of the lesson, Yoshizawa relaxed the students by playing "I Want It That Way," a song by the Backstreet Boys. He had the students fill in blanks on a printout of the lyrics while listening to the music. About 20 songs that match the content of the lessons and English levels of the students are studied in a year, according to Yoshizawa.
Although Meiji Gakuen is a coed school, boys and girls study separately for four years--from the first year of middle school through the first year of high school. The main reason is that the maturity of boys and girls can differ at this age. "It is more effective to teach them separately until male students catch up with female students mentally," the principal said.
(Jun. 14, 2007)
Yoko Mizui Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
The midterm examination for third-year students in the English writing class at Meiji Gakuen Senior High School in Kitakyushu comprised just two writing tasks.
The first was to write an essay of more than 80 words explaining the proverb "Too many cooks spoil the broth" with a concrete example.
The second was to write more than 100 words supporting one of the following propositions: "Japanese high school students should be allowed to bring cell phones to school" or "Japanese high school students should not bring cell phones to school."
The examination was set by their English-language teacher, Takashi Inomori, on May 25. A Japanese explanation of the meaning of the proverb was also given. When I observed his class, it was the day when students were given their test results.
Before returning the test papers to the students, Inomori explained how he had eval!uated their work: five points for discourse markers, two points for indentation and left margin, three points for the title and 15 points for the content.
He said that the more students used discourse markers, the more points they earned. In previous lessons, they had studied discourse markers such as "Let me give you two examples," "For example...," "As another example...," "Therefore..." and "For these reasons..."
"Those who got 'So what?' from me needed more explanation," Inomori said, introducing some examples that lacked further explanation to relate sentences or to lead to a conclusion. After reading two excellent works by their classmates, he returned the test papers to the students.
Then he changed to the introduction of a new assignment: "Giving directions to a stranger to a certain place in the school."
"You are going to write directions for a person who has come to Meiji Gakuen for the first time. All you can give is directions on how to get there without mentioning the place that you have in mind," he said.
He wrote ｅxpression!s to use on the blackboard such as "turn to the right/left," "take the path on your right/left until you come to...," and "go upstairs to..."
I observed another English-writing class for third-year students, whose lesson was a step ahead of the class mentioned earlier. In this class, students who had done the same assignment at home exchanged their writing with partners in a pair work exercise. They discussed what was missing or confusing in their English directions to lead the partner to a place they had in mind.
At the end of the class, Inomori told each student to bring a photo showing at least three people, including the student themselves as a small child, to the next class. The students would be required to explain to their classmates who is who in the photo in the next lesson.
Inomori introduced good and bad ｅxpression!s related to the task.
"You must try to use as many different sentence patterns as possible so that your explanation will not become monotonous," he said.
===
Comprehensive ability required
"This writing class is a kind of general study in English lessons. The various fragments students have learned in English lessons since middle school have been integrated into a product," Inomori said. "Students will get a sense of accomplishment and so will teachers."
Commenting on the writing class, third-year student Chigusa Hisatomi said: "It is very interesting and entertaining. The way Inomori-sensei says things is also interesting."
Her classmate Naoko Hashimoto agreed.
"I enjoy this class very much. I think what I learned in this class will be useful in the future," she said.
Go Yoshizawa, an English-language teacher who used to teach the writing classes, said: "Some graduates who have entered university say that what they learned in our writing class was quite useful when they had to write reports in English at universities."
Inomori said they offered students familiar topics to write about in the early stage of the first term so that students would think that writing in English was fun.
Yoshizawa said students would eagerly accept the assignment if they were interested in the topic. He added that when they had assigned the students to write under the title "If I Were a School Principal" some years ago, the same assignment was given as part of the entrance examination of Hiroshima University four months later. "I was surprised to hear that from one of my students," he said.
The school is known for sending many of its graduates to national universities and medical colleges.
"Students' writing ability improves a lot by the end of the year," said Yoshizawa, who now teaches English at Meiji Gakuen Junior High School.
Helping students acquire English skills not only for passing university entrance examinations but also for practical use in the future is the school's purpose.
"We'd like to cultivate students' English ability so that they can apply it to university study," Principal Masayo Saito said.
"I think it's import!ant that Japanese scholars and doctors can write an English thesis and make a presentation in English at international academic conferences in any field," she said.
The English writing classes are formed according to degree of advancement. The third-year students in six classes are divided into three levels--beginners, intermediate and advanced. Each writing class consists of students from three homerooms.
Inomori makes it a rule to change students' seating positions every week so that students from different homerooms will mix well.
Meiji Gakuen Junior High School, a middle school, and Meiji Gakuen Senior High School, a high school, share one principal and a six-year unified English education curriculum. Meiji Gakuen also has a primary school where English has been a subject since 2000. Native English-speaking teachers teach English at the primary school twice a week from the first year.
For middle school students who come from outside primary schools, the school provides phonics and pronunciation lessons for a month before actually teaching them from a textbook. on average, of about 250 middle school students in a grade, about 130 students come from outside primary schools.
"Students who come from outside primary schools will catch up with other students from our affiliated primary school in terms of English proficiency when they become second-year students, except in terms of their listening ability," Inomori said.
===
Sight translation
When I visited an English class for third-year students at the middle school, Yoshizawa was introducing a new chapter called "Trick or Treat." Before starting the lesson, students took a short vocabulary quiz, and then worked in pairs to check the results.
In introducing the new chapter, Yoshizawa told students to put slashes in the English text where they thought it was appropriate to pause while reading, and asked them to what extent they understood the meaning. Then he distributed printouts in which the English text and its direct Japanese translation were written vertically. He first had students listen to a tape of a native speaker, while letting them read along in both English text and its rough Japanese translation.
After explaining about Halloween and jack-o'-lanterns, Yoshizawa told students to fold the printout in half vertically and follow him in reading the English text in chunks, while he translated it into Japanese. Then he told students to read only the Japanese parts and repeat the English after him.
The students were not allowed to look at the text for the third time in repeating Yoshizawa's English reading. Yoshizawa told them to imagine the scene while they were listening and speaking English.
Yoshizawa said this kind of sight translation was standard procedure in the class and that giving students vocabulary homework was also common practice "as we expect students to review the lesson, not prepare for the lesson."
At the end of the lesson, Yoshizawa relaxed the students by playing "I Want It That Way," a song by the Backstreet Boys. He had the students fill in blanks on a printout of the lyrics while listening to the music. About 20 songs that match the content of the lessons and English levels of the students are studied in a year, according to Yoshizawa.
Although Meiji Gakuen is a coed school, boys and girls study separately for four years--from the first year of middle school through the first year of high school. The main reason is that the maturity of boys and girls can differ at this age. "It is more effective to teach them separately until male students catch up with female students mentally," the principal said.
(Jun. 14, 2007)