Use of Japanese in the classroom

Ok for this blog I hope to get some feedback from anyone who is reading this blog, not many I am sure at this point. Anyway, it is of course the use of Japanese in a classroom. It depends a lot on what classes you are teaching of course. For Elementary school students I admit I would rarely use English to explain anything about a game. I would use a little Japanese but then demonstrate the activity, some kids would get it and I would let them explain it in Japanese to the rest of the class. This worked almost 99% of the time and in some rare cases I would explain in Japanese. I also used a lot of Japanese games like fruit basket, karuta, and 神経衰弱(concentration) that required almost no explanation since they are popular and well-known in Japan. I also do this method with my private kids.

For Junior and Senior HS I use English at least 2 times with instructions, but after that I really just want to use Japanese or have the teacher translate. Most students at those ages will not even listen to you, even if you use Japanese, but most students get used to commands like "open your book to page <>".

My reasoning for doing this ( and I feel my way is the best, of course) is that what is important is the activity, not that they understand the English for the instructions. Setting up the activity for success is key, so it is most important that they understand the activity so they can use the English in the activity successfully.

I will post about Adult classes in a later post.

Welcome to an attempt at a Blog

Well I have finally setup my blog to link with my business website. I will start by saying I will hopefully be posting my experiences as a teacher from past to the present and beyond. I have been teaching since Sept 1999 and have come a long way. I believe the key to success as an English teacher in Japan is quite a bit to do with personality but also with experience and access to the right materials and a willingness to always be looking for something better or more appropriate for your students. I have taught from big "Eikaiwa"s, a Juku(cram school), a senmon gakko for interior decorator students, Elem, middle, and high schools as well. I have taughts kids from 1 1/2 years old to a business men who is 65 years old. I have taught doctors, dentists, housewives and everybody in between. The variety makes it interesting. Anyway, let me know what you think and if any of my ideas are useful to you. You can find my business website at www.fesjapan.com which is my English School in Nishinomiya city. I teach adults and kids and enjoy it very much. I have been doing it about a year. It continues to grow even though I have been lazy promoting it. ( I prefer just teaching, and not all that advertising stuff).