Unlearning bad English teaching habits
Before becoming an associate professor at Bunkyo University in Kanagawa Prefecture, Koichi Ano spent 19 years teaching at two public high schools and one public middle school in Saitama Prefecture. That likely led to his being chosen as one of the four speakers for the final symposium at the recent Japan Association of College English Teachers convention under the theme, "English Education at the Tertiary Level: in Search of a Consistent Curriculum from Elementary School through University."
The high school where he spent much of his career has an English-oriented program.
Graduates often complained to him their university English classes were "teacher-centered" and conducted in Japanese.
"When I moved to the university, I was in for another shock," Ano said during his presentation titled "High School English and College English: How Can one Follow from the Other?"
"Many students are not used to student-centered classes," he said, adding they are also not familiar with taking all-English classes or working in groups.
To assess the students' experience with English classes in high school, Ano conducted a survey of his students--about 280 freshmen at Bunkyo and two other institutions at which he was teaching during the time of the study.
The survey found that 60 percent had never taken classes conducted in English while in high school. "So if college teachers instruct classes in English, they need to take some steps," Ano pointed out. "First, we must teach [them] classroom English. Also, we must create an atmosphere in which they feel comfortable using English in class."
Nearly 80 percent of the students said they translated all or most of their English texts into Japanese during high school. "This means that in university-level reading classes, we must begin by teaching reading strategies," he stressed. "The reading strategies [they learned] in high school are just [about] translation."
The survey revealed that the majority of Ano's students had little experience in practicing English on their own, such as reading aloud (e.g. shadowing), oral presentations or essay writing. Ano therefore urged university teachers to offer step-by-step instructions when conducting these activities.
Asked about what skills they wanted to improve at university, 87 percent of the students said they wanted to improve their speaking ability, while 52 percent were more interested in listening.
Based on the analysis, Ano has provided university teachers with a list of dos and don'ts. He stressed that they should:
-- Convert students' knowledge of English into communicative competence.
-- Give them opportunities to use English during class.
-- Prepare small tasks.
-- Introduce learning strategies.
Meanwhile, they are urged not to:
-- Teach with the same approach that failed for the students in high school, especially for slow learners.
-- Eval!uate students only by test scores.
-- Talk too much in class.