ESL Nao-chan
The book is handling with how children acquire their language.
Early learning language is similar to Japanese 1st year students’ learning.
ex) when the teacher ask students, they answer it with one word.
Early child often use “me” instead of “I”. They would say “me go.” in two words stage.
Taking mistakes, they get language skills better and better.
Students learn some English and useful expressions through teachers’ talk.
However, they need to study by themselves.
Word Order
Suggestions as possible options by Mr. Hall
- He can give some kind of language tests to JHS students. ” what is difficult for them?”
- He can have a lesson which teach word order, and think about pros and cons.
Nao-chan is interested in No.1.
危うし！小学校英語 Momo-chan
She got a question why students learn Kanji in English class.
Many parents want their children learn English earlier and they tend to make them go to English conversation schools. However, is dangerous because they have not had foundation skills of Japanese yet.
If they start learning English earlier, they will not use English in the future, because they would get some problems. They can listen and speak English but they cannot read and write if they learn English in elementary school.
The date the author researched mentions:
研究結果で興味深いのは、日本語をしっかり身につけてからカナダに行った子供は比較的早く読み書き能力を身につけるのに対し、反対は発音は容易に習得できても読み書きに問題がある。
Mr.Hall
That is why those students have experience learning communication ability in Japanese school. They have cognitive academic language proficiency. He cannot emagin kokugoryoku impact so much negatively on English classes.
The author mentions that they あせらなくていい.
Momo agrees some her opinions, but she think students need English classes. Since the English ability gap between ES and JHS is big in Japan, they need it in order to bridge the gap.