English as a Means of Communication

English is not a collection of grammatical rules and vocabulary words; it’s a way to communicate. To learn to communicate in English, one must learn by communicating. However many words one memorizes, if one can't use them to communicate, they have no meaning. If students can tell their ideas and say jokes, they’ll enjoy English, so it will be easier for them to remember what they learn.

The Parts of a Good Lesson

1. The teacher teaches the target (words, grammar point, or phrase).

2. The students practice the target (pronunciation, construction, and comprehension). For example, they can practice it through repetition or games such as fruit basket and karuta. However, such activities are NOT the main point of the lesson. Except for fundamental expressions (in first and second grade), they should be brief.

3. The students use the target in communication. This is the most important part of the lesson. There are some sample lessons on this homepage (sorry, Japanese only so far).

It’s also good for students to learn to use it or at least hear and understand it in slightly different contexts or with slightly different content. For example, once students have learned “I like ______,” it’s easy for them to learn other sentences with the same structure: “I play ______,” “I eat _______,” “I want ________,” “I wrestle _____,” etc. Later, you can change the subject: “You like ____,” “You play _____,” etc. Students can then use these structures to ask questions, too: “I eat natto. And you?” or “You eat natto?” Mistakes in grammar or words students haven’t learned yet aren’t important. “I want dog,” “Keiko eat gokiburi,” or “Peter like Japan?” don't have perfect grammar, but they’re perfect communication. If they can say simple ideas and jokes, they can enjoy using English. They will be able to use the target (Japanese version reads more like "get used to the target"), and they will be enthusiastic about English.

Practice is very important. The next lesson should give more practice of the target. Maybe the activities should use both the new target and the previous one. Otherwise, make the students use the target for 5 minutes two or three times a week. For example, the teacher can ask in (Japanese) “What animal do you like?” or “What sport do you play?” or “Tell your neighbor what yakitori you eat.”

Planning

1. From the Fukui City English Activities Guidebook: "It's not necessary to do all the activities in this book. According to the situation at your school, some activities should be omitted." This means that some activities were not intended for most schools. Such activities were designed for high-level schools. Please choose lessons from the guidebook carefully, considering the level of your students, how much English they've learned already, etc.

2. What should we teach? I think we should teach English that children can use in communication. Children want to tell about themselves or their friends and tell jokes. Please think about whether children will use what you're teaching once today's lesson is over. If they can use it only in the activity you want to do, it's useless. For example, if you teach "Where do you live," "What time is it," signs of the zodiac, names of shapes, or names of Christmas ornaments, students aren't going to want to say these things after the class is over. If it's OK for the kids to forget something as soon as the class is over, why would you want to teach it to them in the first place? That's what I mean by "useless English."