Japanese High School Class 10/8

The class I observed today was a demonstration lesson by Professor Shawn Clankie, who was there to talk to the high school students about English learning, preparing for university entrance exams, and for learning at the university level.  There were 23 students and they were first presented with some questions to think about including “Is there a best way to learn English?” and “What are some ways to improve English?” After they answered the professor’s questions, he tells them that he’s not going to tell them the answers but instead wants them to find out from a reading, which they were to look over and to then underline key points.  

Even though the class was set up for discussion and they were instructed to talk in English, from what I could see the students were not participating fully. I think it would have worked better to check their ability to discuss in English first, and also to incorporate some fun ways to take the level of engagement up a notch. However, the professor did get pretty good response mostly and I think it was effective in planting that first seed when it comes to encouraging participation and an active learning style in order to improve language skills. This is definitely an area where Japanese education is trying to work on so they can bridge the gap between traditional learning and learning at the university level, especially if you wanted to study overseas as it can be a huge source of culture shock.  He reinforced the idea of using the language as opposed to memorizing for exams and shared some tips about a) producing the language, b) reading everything, and c) learning to think in English. I liked his message at the end where he said he looks forward to maybe meeting some of these students at the university where he teaches.