Why English?

10 to 12-year-old elementary school students will be taught English in their class in Japan. From 2011, English is going to be a required subject in every school.

Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology （文部科学省） insists that this early-started-teaching will lessen the students’ fears against English. The focus of the English class is put on communication. “Children in schools will enjoy English lessons, and it will make them more interested in English” an elementary teacher who teaches English in his class says. What the students do in class is sing songs, play games, and learn easy greeting expressions in English. It sounds fun, but does this really work?

You may feel strange when you know the fact that the annual course syllabus in junior high and high schools won’t be affected by this change. What is taught in those schools is “examination English”, cramming grammar and vocabulary to pass the exams for high school or college. Students are not always motivated to learn English for this purpose. So, why do they need to “enjoy” English in schools?

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I would say that many English teachers in Japan do not care why their students have to study English. I can hear answers like “Of course because it’s required!” Oh, come on! Some may say “leaning another language is good for our life.” OK. I would agree with it. But why English?

There are actually many voices that if you can use English, you will have better life. Well, it might be true. English is now the strongest language in many fields in the world; business, engineering, science and so on. If you know how to use (“use” means either read, write, listen or speak) English, you will have more chance to get job. However, many people in Japan choose not to study English hard, hard enough to use it for their career. As I feel from what they say, I think they just don’t like to make effort to study English enough. There are many kinds of jobs you can get without ability of English, and there are not many jobs where people who can use English are hired more than who haven’t learned it enough. The belief that English makes our life better is an unproved belief spread in Japan.

If you wanna be an English teacher, you have to be prepared to answer one of your students’ question: “Why do I study English?” You can’t say “coz it’s required”, can you? Or would you answer “because it enriches your life” ?

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People who wanna be English teachers, or who are English teachers must have reasons why they’ve chosen English. Had fun time with American friends? Had a good trip in Australia? Or they think cross cultural communication is really interesting? Anything can be a reason. Anything.

My point is that if you wanna be an English teacher, you should be confident with your own reason; confident enough to tell students your own story and attract them.

What English teacher do is to make students like English. It’s not just teaching grammar, vocabulary, how to read, write, listen, nor speak.

Never forget the reason you’ve chosen English. Never forget why you think English is attractive.

It’s you, English teachers, who can answer your own students’ question, “Why do I study English?”

Blog post (4/15): Computer Mediated Collaborative Learning

According to Warschauer (1997), there are five features that distinguish Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) from other communication media:
1. text-based and computer-mediated interaction
2. many-to-many communication
3. time-and place-independence
4. long distance exchanges
5. hypermedia links

Considering these features, CMC has a lot of benefits. First, in text-based interaction, such as online chatting, learners can practice rapid interaction with opportunities for reflection, and many of them can be more expressive. Also, it can mediate writing to speaking in that learners can experience real conversation through writing. Second, CMC is free from time and place; it means that learners can have more time to reflect (in cases such as sending emails), and they can access to it as long as they have internet capability and computer accessibility. Third, learners can interact with people form any countries around the world, which broadens their possibility to learn the language. Finally, they can share links of materials with other learners so that they can easily look through it and reflect, and discuss it.
These are the potentials and realities of CMC, but some questions are remained, such as what is the new roll of teachers in CMC environment, or how to deal with ethnic, linguistic or cultural difference between the learners.
Although questions are still remained, it can be said that CMC is starting to change the way of collaborative learning. A well designed CMC will help learners learn from the new technology.

Above is the summary of the article, and as I read this, I came up a question which post a different view on the role of CMC in language learning.
Question is: is CMC (in writing) really helps learners enhance communication ability? Not only this article, but also other articles about CMC suggest that through CMC, learners tend to express their thoughts more than face-to-face communication, and they can have more time to reflect on what others say and what their responses are. As an opportunityu to practice their target language, CMC will work good with these points. I doubt, however, if it works as an opportunity to enhance communication ability, since in face-to-face communication, they don't have time to reflect or cannot have excuse to express their thoughts less. Of course, CMC will work good to enforce learners' ability, with providing chances for practice, but I don't think CMC (in writing) itself works to enhance their communication ability.

Mark Warschauer, 1997, Computer-Mediated Collaborative Learning: Theory and Practice