Todai extends English reform
Midori Matsuzawa Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
One of the major roles of Tokyo University's Komaba campus in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, is to offer a liberal arts education for its freshmen and sophomores students to build a foundation on which they may pursue their specialized majors in later years, mainly at the institution's Hongo campus in Bunkyo Ward.
As one of the nation's top higher educational institutions, Tokyo University covers a wide variety of academic fields from humanities to sciences. Regardless of the specialities students pursue, the university urges them to strive for well-rounded sophistication in their first two years.
English-language education at Komaba also follows this basic philosophy. In 1993, it went through a major reform, followed by another one that began in 2006.
Prof. Katsuya Sugawara, head of the campus' English education team, recently spoke to The Daily Yomiuri regarding these reforms.
The 1993 reform produced a best-selling textbook titled The Universe of English, which was compiled as a reader for freshmen in a newly introduced compulsory course called English I. Attracting attention from the general public as well, the book enjoyed good sales for a university textbook. Its sequel for sophomores, The Expanding Universe of English, also became a best seller.
The Universe of English features 22 top-notch essays from various academic fields, including philosopher Gregory Bateson's The Process of Image Formation and scientist Stephen Hawking's The Expanding Universe. Each one is of a length that can be dealt with within one 90-minute-long class per week.
Showing the English texts on the left-hand pages, the Universe series offers detailed notes on the right-hand pages so that users can enjoy reading the selections without pausing to check their dictionaries. This is one of the features that made the books widely popular.
The Universe series was designed for the expanding class size of the English I course--up to 120 students in each class, or more than double that of previous compulsory courses.
To handle these large classes, English I takes a "mass-production" approach. The students all use the same textbook; they all see the same video footage related to each story--which Komaba's English-language education team produced on its own; and they are all given worksheets to check their understanding of the readings and video footage.
Introducing the English I course was regarded as a "highlight" of the 1993 reform, but it was in fact "a desperate measure" that the team was forced to make, Sugawara confessed.
"We thought it problematic that we had classes of about 50 students, but we couldn't expect to hire more faculty teaching staff even though, at the same time, we had an increasing number of students enrolling as members of the second baby-boom generation began to reach higher education," the professor said.
To achieve smaller classes, therefore, the team pulled off what Sugawara described as "a kind of magic trick."
Out of two compulsory English courses, it was decided to drastically expand the class size of one course to up to 120 students so that the other could reduce its class size to about 30.
The second course, called English II, was divided into "W" (writing), "LS" (listening and speaking) and "R" (reading) sections. These more specialized classes were to be taken in the first year, and the students choose their favorite in each semester, even if that meant studying in the same broad area twice--reading classes in two consecutive semesters, for example. It was up to individual teachers to decide what to teach in their respective sections of English II.
However, there was a drawback. Although the teachers could realize the smaller classes they had wished for, no major efforts were made to set out a specific curriculum for English II. Instead, the focus was put on English I to design an effective mass-production course.
Therefore, English II remained almost untouched--until the 2006 reform, which has changed the skills the course addresses.
It is now divided into "R" (reading), "P" (presentation) and "C" (comprehension) sections.
"P" features output practices with two different focuses: "PW" deals with essay writing, while "PO" demands oral presentation, and the students can choose either one. "C," meanwhile, aims at building a higher level of comprehension skills with a combination of reading and listening practice.
"What is import!ant this time," Sugawara stressed, "is that we've set regulations on how to take English II because it was often the case that the students chose, for example, only LS classes if these skills were their favorite ones. Now the students have to take all three classes during their first 1-1/2 years."
Making presentation classes compulsory for all students may be a highlight of the 2006 reform. Sugawara taught two PO classes in the last academic year, in which his students were required to write 1,000-word scripts to make presentations toward the end of the semester.
"It was really hard to correct their English," the professor recalled but added he also derived some pleasure from the work.
"My students showed quite different faces when they finished making their presentations, apparently feeling a sense of accomplishment," he said. "Many of them told me that it was the first time in their life to speak English in front of others."
Under the 2006 reform, English I has also gone through some changes. Now it is compulsory only for freshmen, although it used to be taken over two years. Also, the Universe textbooks have been replaced by new volumes titled on Campus and Campus Wide, which are used in the first and second semesters, respectively.
Following the same editorial concepts as the Universe books, the Campus series is titled to reflect the fact that experts of various genres at Komaba were involved in the production process, from recommending interesting stories to writing introductions and selecting accompanying charts.
Now the teachers and the students are accustomed to the fixed format of English I, but Sugawara admitted that it causes a certain amount of "dissatisfaction" among students due to its large classes--which have drawbacks such as a lack of two-way teacher-student communication.
"However, we're very proud and confident of the quality of its teaching materials," he stressed.
Producing textbooks for their own students may be possible only for institutions that enjoy resources as rich as those available to Tokyo University--there are more than 40 English teachers at the Komaba campus alone--but Sugawara believes there is something in their efforts that other institutions can learn from.
"Universities have often tended to be less interested in teaching students [than doing research]," Sugawara pointed out. "However, teaching requires a lot of resources--time, money and people. The more efforts you make, the better teaching you can offer. I believe we can prove this, and that's why the textbooks have been so appealing to the general public."
The reform is not yet complete. Sugawara unveiled a plan that has just received a go-ahead. "We'll launch a new writing program for students wishing to take science majors to teach them how to write academic papers," he said. "Of course, it'll be compulsory."
Scheduled to be implemented next year, the program will be called "Active Learning of English for Science Students." "When it's introduced, it would attract attention from various other parties," the professor said with confidence.
Moreover, he added, it has also been decided to reduce the class size for English I to roughly half in the 2009 academic year, by increasing the number of teachers.
"Rather than being forced to take desperate measures, it's likely that we can aggressively implement what we've long wanted to do," Sugawara said.
(Aug. 23, 2007)
Midori Matsuzawa Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
One of the major roles of Tokyo University's Komaba campus in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, is to offer a liberal arts education for its freshmen and sophomores students to build a foundation on which they may pursue their specialized majors in later years, mainly at the institution's Hongo campus in Bunkyo Ward.
As one of the nation's top higher educational institutions, Tokyo University covers a wide variety of academic fields from humanities to sciences. Regardless of the specialities students pursue, the university urges them to strive for well-rounded sophistication in their first two years.
English-language education at Komaba also follows this basic philosophy. In 1993, it went through a major reform, followed by another one that began in 2006.
Prof. Katsuya Sugawara, head of the campus' English education team, recently spoke to The Daily Yomiuri regarding these reforms.
The 1993 reform produced a best-selling textbook titled The Universe of English, which was compiled as a reader for freshmen in a newly introduced compulsory course called English I. Attracting attention from the general public as well, the book enjoyed good sales for a university textbook. Its sequel for sophomores, The Expanding Universe of English, also became a best seller.
The Universe of English features 22 top-notch essays from various academic fields, including philosopher Gregory Bateson's The Process of Image Formation and scientist Stephen Hawking's The Expanding Universe. Each one is of a length that can be dealt with within one 90-minute-long class per week.
Showing the English texts on the left-hand pages, the Universe series offers detailed notes on the right-hand pages so that users can enjoy reading the selections without pausing to check their dictionaries. This is one of the features that made the books widely popular.
The Universe series was designed for the expanding class size of the English I course--up to 120 students in each class, or more than double that of previous compulsory courses.
To handle these large classes, English I takes a "mass-production" approach. The students all use the same textbook; they all see the same video footage related to each story--which Komaba's English-language education team produced on its own; and they are all given worksheets to check their understanding of the readings and video footage.
Introducing the English I course was regarded as a "highlight" of the 1993 reform, but it was in fact "a desperate measure" that the team was forced to make, Sugawara confessed.
"We thought it problematic that we had classes of about 50 students, but we couldn't expect to hire more faculty teaching staff even though, at the same time, we had an increasing number of students enrolling as members of the second baby-boom generation began to reach higher education," the professor said.
To achieve smaller classes, therefore, the team pulled off what Sugawara described as "a kind of magic trick."
Out of two compulsory English courses, it was decided to drastically expand the class size of one course to up to 120 students so that the other could reduce its class size to about 30.
The second course, called English II, was divided into "W" (writing), "LS" (listening and speaking) and "R" (reading) sections. These more specialized classes were to be taken in the first year, and the students choose their favorite in each semester, even if that meant studying in the same broad area twice--reading classes in two consecutive semesters, for example. It was up to individual teachers to decide what to teach in their respective sections of English II.
However, there was a drawback. Although the teachers could realize the smaller classes they had wished for, no major efforts were made to set out a specific curriculum for English II. Instead, the focus was put on English I to design an effective mass-production course.
Therefore, English II remained almost untouched--until the 2006 reform, which has changed the skills the course addresses.
It is now divided into "R" (reading), "P" (presentation) and "C" (comprehension) sections.
"P" features output practices with two different focuses: "PW" deals with essay writing, while "PO" demands oral presentation, and the students can choose either one. "C," meanwhile, aims at building a higher level of comprehension skills with a combination of reading and listening practice.
"What is import!ant this time," Sugawara stressed, "is that we've set regulations on how to take English II because it was often the case that the students chose, for example, only LS classes if these skills were their favorite ones. Now the students have to take all three classes during their first 1-1/2 years."
Making presentation classes compulsory for all students may be a highlight of the 2006 reform. Sugawara taught two PO classes in the last academic year, in which his students were required to write 1,000-word scripts to make presentations toward the end of the semester.
"It was really hard to correct their English," the professor recalled but added he also derived some pleasure from the work.
"My students showed quite different faces when they finished making their presentations, apparently feeling a sense of accomplishment," he said. "Many of them told me that it was the first time in their life to speak English in front of others."
Under the 2006 reform, English I has also gone through some changes. Now it is compulsory only for freshmen, although it used to be taken over two years. Also, the Universe textbooks have been replaced by new volumes titled on Campus and Campus Wide, which are used in the first and second semesters, respectively.
Following the same editorial concepts as the Universe books, the Campus series is titled to reflect the fact that experts of various genres at Komaba were involved in the production process, from recommending interesting stories to writing introductions and selecting accompanying charts.
Now the teachers and the students are accustomed to the fixed format of English I, but Sugawara admitted that it causes a certain amount of "dissatisfaction" among students due to its large classes--which have drawbacks such as a lack of two-way teacher-student communication.
"However, we're very proud and confident of the quality of its teaching materials," he stressed.
Producing textbooks for their own students may be possible only for institutions that enjoy resources as rich as those available to Tokyo University--there are more than 40 English teachers at the Komaba campus alone--but Sugawara believes there is something in their efforts that other institutions can learn from.
"Universities have often tended to be less interested in teaching students [than doing research]," Sugawara pointed out. "However, teaching requires a lot of resources--time, money and people. The more efforts you make, the better teaching you can offer. I believe we can prove this, and that's why the textbooks have been so appealing to the general public."
The reform is not yet complete. Sugawara unveiled a plan that has just received a go-ahead. "We'll launch a new writing program for students wishing to take science majors to teach them how to write academic papers," he said. "Of course, it'll be compulsory."
Scheduled to be implemented next year, the program will be called "Active Learning of English for Science Students." "When it's introduced, it would attract attention from various other parties," the professor said with confidence.
Moreover, he added, it has also been decided to reduce the class size for English I to roughly half in the 2009 academic year, by increasing the number of teachers.
"Rather than being forced to take desperate measures, it's likely that we can aggressively implement what we've long wanted to do," Sugawara said.
(Aug. 23, 2007)