Tsushi: ヒューマンな英語授業をしたい
The author argues that teachers are not kings of the class. We should make an ideal class for students. It’s important for students to respect one anothers’ personality and differences.
Maslow’s 5 needs: 1. Biological needs; 2. Needs for safety; 3. Need of belonging and love; 4. Need of acceptance; 5. Self-efficacy
Students’ communicative activities are related to these needs. The needs come first.
The book was more focused on JHS and HS but one card activity she thought ES could do is business card exchange.
Tsushi’s wisdom: When teachers teach how to communicate to students it is necessary for students to respect others.
Things you can pursue
- How do good teachers conduct communicative activities effectively?
- How do children interact in pair work/ group work?
- Does a particular kind of activity encourage language learning or strategy use?
- Analyzing the activity types in textbooks: what kinds of communication do textbooks encourage?
- In which kind of activities do students feel anxiety, why? In which kind of activities do students exhibit confidence, why?
- Likert scale 5 4 3 2 1
- Psychology in English language learning
Sakuranbo: ネイティブスピーカーの前置詞
Before she read the book, she thought that we have to memorize the meaning of 前置詞, but the author says that is not such a food idea. He explains each 前置詞。He relates prepositions to family. For example, the image of “over” is “over something.” “Think over” means to thoroughly look at something from different angles like you are turning it over and over.
The difference between in, at, on:
In: Inside of something
At: At the point
On: On top of something
Issues that can be investigated:
- University students’ understanding or prepositions
- Comparing how JHS textbooks teach prepositions
- New instructional method for prepositions
- Comparing how prepositions are taught in different EFL textbooks throughout the world.
Shinchan: フィンランドの小学校英語教育
English is a foreign language in Finland, but comparing TOEFL scores, the average is 96 out of 120. It is number 7 in the world. In most of the top scoring countries English is used as a second language.
Finnish schools are all free from elementary school to university. In Finland, equality makes quality. In Finland there is no gap. They have no cram schools, education is up to the school. There are also no tests. Japan lowers its goals for students but Finland does not do that. Class size in Finland is smaller, 20, compared to 40 in Japan.
Issues that can be investigated:
- Comparing English textbooks of Finland and Japan
- Comparing teacher work between Japan and Finland.
- Comparing teacher’s employment test between Japan and Finland.
- Comparing English education curriculum between Japan and Finland.
- Comparing primary school English between Japan and Finland.