教室にAETがいる

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(1)Title. 教室にAETがいる. Author(s). マシオン, ステュアート. Citation. 釧路論集 : 北海道教育大学釧路校研究紀要, 第42号: 173-179. Issue Date. 2010-12. URL. http://s-ir.sap.hokkyodai.ac.jp/dspace/handle/123456789/2362. Rights. Hokkaido University of Education.

(2) 釧路論集－北海道教育大学釧路校研究紀要－第42号（平成22年度） Kushiro Ronshu, - Journal of Hokkaido University of Education at Kushiro - No.42(2010):173-179. 教室にＡＥＴがいるマシオン、スチュアート北海道教育大学釧路校英語科教育研究室. There Is an AET in Your Classroom MASSION, Stuart Department of English Education, Kushiro Campus, Hokkaido University of Education. 概要この論文に挙げられた項目は、著者がAET着任期間中に日本の小学校英語教育の現場でよく見受けられた事柄をまとめたものである。本論では、教室内での教師と生徒によるふるまいを、教室での指導のために編まれた大学用教科書を使用して分析してゆく。非生産的な日本人教師の態度としては、AETの質問に担任が解答して生徒の発言を封じてしまう、騒いでいる児童・生徒を静かにさせない、教師自身が全く授業に参加しようとせず傍観する、授業前の打ち合わせを怠る、参観日にAETの授業を当てる、学年レベルに合わない授業案、AETとの授業で習得した表現や内容を復習する時間がない、などの実例が含まれる。児童・生徒の授業態度における問題としては、英語で話すことを極端に恥ずかしがる、授業内のゲームでは日本語で対応する、AETに対するハラスメントなどに触れた。著者の見解では、ほとんどの問題は適切な注意・警告を児童に与えることで解決することができると思われる。また最後に、若い日本の学生に英語を学ぶ動機を与えるためには、英語教育を実践している外国の学校との交流事業を奨めると著者は述べている。 ABSTRACT This paper lists problems frequently encountered by the author during English instruction in typical Japanese elementary classrooms when he was an AET (Assistant English Teacher). Actual classroom behaviors by teachers and schoolchildren are described and analyzed using a popular college textbook for teacher classroom instruction. Counterproductive teacher behaviors include the teacher answering the AET questions which were directed to the students, failure to bring order to the class, not participating in the lesson, avoiding the pre-class meeting with the AET, scheduling the AET for Parent’s Day, requesting inappropriate lessons for a given grade level and not practicing the learned English with the students after the AET has left. Counterproductive schoolchildren behaviors include shyness, reluctance to use English during games and sexual harassment of the AET. Most remedies to these problems can be summed up with “Stop doing that!” Finally, the author suggests doing international inter-school projects requiring English conversational ability to motivate the young Japanese English learner. I would like to share the almost four years of. ability of the AET and the quality of the teaching. experience I had as an Assistant English Teacher. plan and materials are crucial factors in the success. (hereafter AET) in Japanese elementary schools with. of a language class. However, this paper is directed. the hope that the teacher and the AET can become a. at Japanese elementary school teachers (hereafter. better team to make English instruction both fun and. teachers), not AETs. I have long wished to write about. effective. In the almost 700 elementary school classes. the problems an AET encounters and how the job of the. which I taught I observed many good things, but also. AET can be made easier.. many problems which I feel hinder the children’s. The focus of this article will be on these problems and. acquisition of the English language. Certainly the. how to alleviate them. Where appropriate, I will cite a. － 173 －.

(3) マシオン、スチュアート popular textbook used in teacher education, “Looking. classes, I noticed the schoolchildren looking away from. in Classrooms” by Thomas L. Good and Jere E. Brophy. me and to their teacher for the right answer. In both. [1] (hereafter Good and Brophy), to give some outside. cases the schoolchildren then repeated the answer back. perspective in identifying these class problems. The. to me. While this may be a low stress method of English. question of what English to teach should be left to the. learning for the children, they will not always have a. Board of Education and is not the subject of this article.. “language coach” to help them. I usually put an end. If indeed elementary school teachers do go ahead with. to this problem by immediately “praising” the teacher. government plans to introduce more rigorous English. with, “Sensei honto ni atama ga ii desu ne?”. classes starting in the year 2011, my observations might. On the other hand, during the introduction phase. be of even more assistance to them. At the end of this. I often used the teacher in a role playing capacity to. paper, I will discuss a possible motivational tool which. demonstrate a phrase or a game. This is a very effective. might help motivate fifth and sixth graders to learn. participation of the teacher in the class which gives. English.. the pupils more confidence during the game phase. Certainly another useful intervention by the teacher might be if the AET is having difficulty communicating. The Basic AET Class Plan. the Japanese meaning of the English phrase or if the My basic AET class plan included three phases: 1). AET does not understand a student’s question.. Review of previously learned English (hereafter review phase), 2) Introduction of new vocabulary and target. The teacher fails to bring order to the class.. phrases (hereafter introduction phase), and 3) A game testing acquisition of the new material (hereafter game. This is what Good and Brophy term a “class. phase). This three phase class plan made use of many. management” problem [3]. The best way to pre-empt. popular teaching methods. For instance, I often used. disruptive student behavior is to have a good class plan. audio-lingual methods like songs, physical props like. which engages all the schoolchildren in an interesting. pictures or costumes, and total physical response was. way, avoiding interruptions and chances for distraction. However, often when I entered a classroom, the. sometimes used in the game phase. In each phase. children became noisy and this noisiness did not. problems sometimes arose.. stop until I tried to get the children to be quiet. This The teacher answers the AET’s questions which were. raucous behavior then picked up again during the. directed at schoolchildren.. introduction phase and was often accompanied by strange pronunciations of the words I was teaching.. This is a problem in both the review phase and the. The AET is usually not a trained teacher and cannot. introduction phase. It falls under the classroom problem. be expected to know how to introduce class discipline.. identified by Good and Brophy as “teacher domination. The teacher during this time would be sitting at his or. of classroom communication” [2]. An important feature. her desk, maybe grading papers, and did not seem to. of a foreign language class is the interaction of the AET. mind this disruptive behavior. While it is usually the. and class pupils. Frequent interference by the teacher. responsibility of the AET to make an interesting and. in this interaction is certainly time-consuming and. fast-paced class plan, the teacher should be engaged in. distracting. During the review phase the AET is trying. the class either in an active or passive role.. to ascertain retention of previously taught English. There are cultural forces at work here which the. and set the tone for the introduction phase. During the. teacher and the AET need to recognize and overcome. I. introduction phase the AET is trying to impart new. think the children might have been taking an example. English phrases and vocabulary to the children.. from the behavior of Japanese celebrities one often sees. A brief question and answer process in both phases. on so-called “warai-bangumi” on TV. Loud, irreverent. is effective in determining whether the schoolchildren. interruptions and “egging on” by bystanders seem to. understand the meaning and proper use of the old and. be the norm in such programs. Maybe the children. new words and phrases.. might be under the impression that AETs are here for. In some classes, the teacher did not even wait for. their entertainment. This impression can be gotten. the children to answer, but immediately supplied the. from watching some televised English instructional. answer which the children then repeated. In other. TV programs where the native English teacher comes. － 174 －.

(4) 教室にＡＥＴがいる across as a “wild and crazy guy.” It could also be that. Good and Brophy say effective classroom management. the teacher was just overwhelmed with these unruly. begins with advanced planning in which a teacher. children every day and saw the AET visit as a needed. thinks through the intended class plan and the learning. rest. No matter what the reason, it should not be the. environment that will be needed to support it [5]. In the. role of the AET to create quiet in the classroom.. morning prior to the teachers’ meeting, I would always. During the introduction phase, I was frequently. try to approach the teachers whose classes I would be. confronted with intentionally strange English. teaching to inform them of the equipment, size of room,. pronunciations of the target English words. This may be. presence or absence of desks and chairs, etc., that I. funny the first few times, but such continued intentional. would need to effectively teach the class.. mispronunciation is disrespectful to the AET and. Sometimes the teachers used this meeting effectively. hampers learning of proper pronunciation. Many a time. to make good suggestions or tell me about their. did I have to say, “Henna hatzu-on shinaide!”, but again. preferred English class plan. All too often, some of the. this is really the job of the teacher. Another problem,. teachers were too busy with other morning duties.. some pupils have somewhere learned Japanese or even. Sometimes teachers just avoided this meeting with me,. English “bad words” (warukuchi) which they enjoy. perhaps because they were worried they would have to. repeating loudly in class.. speak English with me. Often I was only able to “catch”. In one class where I was teaching the names of body. one of the four homeroom teachers whom I wanted to. parts, a boy in the front row kept yelling “chin-chi, chin-. talk to. Lack of communication between these teachers. chi!” much to the merriment of his classmates. The. sometimes led to problems.. teacher seemed unconcerned until I asked him, “Sensei,. Good and Brophy identify minimizing disruptions. chin-chi, nan desu ka?” Then he finally told the boy to. and delays as an effective class management skill [6].. stop. Frequently, young boys would ask me outside of. I remember I once planned a drawing activity for the. class to teach them some “bad words” in English, which. game phase, which went very well in the first class, but. led me to believe previous AETs, in a misguided effort to. after that class I was led to the gym for the second class.. curry favor, might have been their source for these “bad. Needless to say I was disappointed to see the children. words.”. sitting on the floor with no writing materials. Ten minutes was lost as the pupils had to run and get their pencil cases, and the drawing activity also suffered from. The teacher doesn’t participate in the class lesson.. having to be performed on the floor. This is what Good and Brophy term a lack of “with-. Another problem that arose was a lack of important. it-ness”[4]. I have already mentioned above the teacher. supplies or machines. Every AET should be prepared. who would sit at his or her desk and see the AET’s. with their own teaching materials, but I sometimes. presence as a welcome respite during which to catch. entered classrooms which did not have common supplies. up on other work. I usually tried to include the teacher. like colored chalk or magnets for sticking my pictures to. in the introduction and game phase of the class. The. the blackboard. Sometimes precious time was also lost. participation of the teacher is important because. searching for functioning CD players.. the children respect him or her and may have more confidence approaching the teacher than the AET. The. The teachers schedule the AET for “mass classes” on. teacher also has a “policing” role to ensure that the. Parent’s Day.. pupils are properly performing the game. Many games involved interviewing classmates or asking them a. Whenever I was given a class schedule which. target question in English. The laziest pupils had a. indicated all four classes in a grade would hold one. tendency to use Japanese instead of English during the. large English class in the gym, I could usually tell that. game phase or even huddled at the back of the class. day would be Parent’s Day. Maybe the same teachers. where they compared and copied information with. mentioned above, who found my presence a welcome. fellow low-motivated classmates, thereby avoiding any. relief from teaching, also thought my presence would be. use of the target language.. a welcome distraction for the parents, usually mothers, of the schoolchildren. They hoped the mothers would be. The teachers avoid talking to the AET prior to class.. impressed and think their children were always having so much fun at school with a foreign AET. A good AET. － 175 －.

(5) マシオン、スチュアート will rise to the occasion and plan for plenty of physical. class requests. I will pass over the countless examples. activities which always look very impressive when. of improper English grammar and instead discuss other. 106 children do them at the same time. Large classes. improper class lesson requests.. performed in the gym have their place in English. Some of the requests were physically dangerous.. instruction, but should not be overused. Schoolchildren. Around Halloween time, October 31, I was asked to. and their needs should always be at the center of every. instruct pupils how to carve a pumpkin. Japanese. class plan.. pumpkins, even the proper orange colored ones, are. Even in a normal classroom, the presence of parents at. small and quite hard. Cutting a jack-o’-lantern face into. the back of the class can be very intimidating. Children. one of these is very dangerous because it is very easy. are naturally worried about embarrassing themselves. to slip with a sharp knife. Since the teachers had gone. in front of Mom and all their neighbors. That is why the. through great trouble to find pumpkins and had built. pupils usually became very silent and refused to answer. up great expectations in the children, I decided to let. my questions during the review phase.. the children draw facial features on the pumpkins, and. When I visited a class for the first time, I often. I did the cutting. Fortunately, I still have all my fingers!. replaced the review phase with a short self-introduction.. Other dangerous class activities included “jumping as. A favorite question I liked to ask was, “How old do you. far as I can” in class and staggering around blindfolded.. think I am?” Since young children consider anyone over. Even popular games like Fruit Basket resulted in. the age of twenty to be old, they often had a difficult. injuries when boys were allowed to get too wild.. time guessing my age. I heard guesses ranging from. Understandably disappointing for disabled wheelchair. twenty to an occasional irreverent eighty years old, but. bound school children were classes which required a. most guesses were in the high twenties to mid-thirties.. certain level of physical mobility they did not have. The. One memorable Parent’s Day one of the mothers at the. AET should be made aware of any special needs before. back of class laughed out loud and audibly said, “He’s. he or she prepares the class. But the most common inappropriate classes involved. much older than that!” Some teachers thought that by combining two. English phrases or dialogues that were too difficult or. classes into one big class, they could expect the AET. too easy for the class. A fourth grade teacher insisted. to entertain the children for 90 minutes (twice as long. that I do math with his pupils. “Two plus two equals. as a normal 45 minute class). No child I know has. four” was handled very easily, but my request for “five. an attention span that long! Any class management. plus six equals what?” was immediately stopped by the. problems in individual classes are often magnified when. teacher, “No two digit numbers, please! They don’t know. the classes are combined.. numbers higher than ten.” Later in the year at the same school, a sixth grade. The teacher requests strange classes teaching. teacher again insisted on a math class during English. incorrect English or material too easy or too difficult.. instruction. He produced posters with pictures of groups of animals or things, and I was instructed to point at. AETs are generally not allowed to teach whatever. the posters and have the class repeat after me, “Four. they want, but must prepare a lesson to teach the target. cats, seven pigs, nine rabbits,” etc. Perhaps this school. phrases/vocabulary specified by the elementary school.. suffered from too many math teachers! In the case of. In my case, the school filled in and faxed to me, via the. the fourth graders the English math was too difficult,. city School Board, a standardized form listing their. and it was much too easy for the sixth grade class.. desired target English phrases/vocabulary. To make. I have been asked to teach the difference between. this task easier for both the teacher and the AET, city. “what, who and which” to third graders. Another school. Boards of Education often prepare lists of appropriate. insisted I do an action-filled class (bend, run, jump, skip,. classes for each grade level.. etc.) with 35 sixth graders in a normal size classroom. Thankfully, most teachers would stick to this list. with desks and chairs. My advice that sixth graders. which generally took into consideration the children’s. don’t like body movement classes, and the fact that the. age and ability and ensured they were exposed to. Board of Education had said this class is appropriate for. a significant number of target phrases before they. second graders, did not dissuade the teacher.. graduated to junior high school. But some teachers. On another occasion at the same school, I was asked. insisted on improvising, and I saw many very strange. to teach three different classes, discussing on the. － 176 －.

(6) 教室にＡＥＴがいる first day the daily American food diet, on the second. feedback in improving teaching ability [8]. It is perhaps. day traditional American foods, and on the last day. again cultural factors that lead the Japanese to lavish. American holiday foods. These 135 minutes of class. praise on others and never offer any criticism. The. time over three different days may have contributed to. AET, and any future classes he or she may teach, could. “cultural understanding,” but it was a waste of precious. benefit greatly from any constructive criticism the. English teaching time.. teacher has to offer.. Once, I was asked to teach sixth graders to sing the song “Country Road” by John Denver. I dutifully rented. Schoolchildren Problems. a CD, copied the lyrics and prepared a short biography of John Denver. I was very surprised when I arrived. I have already mentioned some adverse class. in the classroom to find the sixth graders had already. management issues involving inappropriate behavior. memorized the song and could sing it very well. Even. by schoolchildren and lack of reaction by their teacher.. after presenting my short biography of John Denver,. Now, I would like to focus on the phenomena of. showing photos, listening to John Denver sing it, and. extreme shyness, refusal to use target English phrases/. then singing it ourselves about five times, there was still. vocabulary and the pervasive practice of “kancho” to the. time left before the end of class. I can only repeat that. reader’s attention.. the Board of Education guidelines are a very helpful, timesaving tool for ensuring that appropriate English. The schoolchildren are sometimes ver y shy.. phrases are taught to the right age groups. Let’s use Good and Brophy mention student “unresponsiveness”. them!. as a class management problem [9]. These children The teacher doesn’t practice English with. may lack self-confidence and engage in several evasive. schoolchildren when the AET has left.. strategies to avoid participating in class activities. Some children refuse to open their mouths or mumble. The review phase at the beginning of an English. incoherently during the introductory or game phase. lesson often revealed that the children had completely. of the class. This shyness usually afflicts girls, but. forgotten the English from the previous class. Needless. sometimes boys seem to have the problem, too.. to say, the teachers who had not participated in the. Perhaps these children also exhibit shyness in all. class, but had instead graded papers at their desks,. their interactions at school, not just in English class.. had also not bothered to write down and practice the. Real shyness is certainly difficult for a shy child to. new English phrases with their pupils while I was. overcome, but I have had classes where a whole row of. away. This is why I feel a visit by an AET only two or. girls refuses to repeat or answer with the target English. three times a year accomplishes very little in the way of. phrase. Clearly this is an example of intentional “group. English language learning.. shyness” or rebelliousness that should be discouraged. The English phrases must be practiced between. by the teacher.. AET visits for the children to have any chance of. Just as disappointing for the AET is to have the. remembering them. Repetition is an important feature. children fight over whom the AET should sit with during. of the audio-lingual method [7]. The plans of the former. the school lunch period, and then have the children. Japanese government to introduce mandatory English. refuse to talk to the AET in English or Japanese during. classes exposing fifth and sixth graders to 35 classes. the actual meal. I also don’t see the point of having an. of English instruction would go far towards correcting. AET eat lunch in a classroom where the children are all. this problem. In the absence of such government. watching with rapt attention an anime video on the TV. mandates the homeroom teacher must practice the. set.. English phrases/vocabulary with the children as often as possible.. The children are often reluctant to use English during the game phase.. The teacher doesn’t inform the AET of good points Speaking in one’s native tongue is always easier. and bad points of the English class.. than in a foreign language. But the English phrases Good and Brophy stress the importance of obtaining. are usually so easy that there should be no reluctance. － 177 －.

(7) マシオン、スチュアート to use them. It is difficult to design an English game. which occurred when the class was over and I was. which cannot be sabotaged by the use of Japanese.. gathering my materials, I admonished the boy in my. Again, the intervention of the teacher is needed during. usual fashion that this was wrong and he was not to do. the game phase to ensure use of the target phrases.. it again. The teacher, who had seen the whole incident,. Sometimes all that is required is for the teacher to. did not intervene, but later complained to her superiors. participate in the game. Another effective strategy is. that I had “terrified” the little boy who insisted to the. to engage the children who exhibit stronger English. teacher he had just “accidently” touched me.. ability in a policing role during the game phase. Often. Fortunately, my version of events was believed, but. these children are even “tougher” in eliciting the desired. I was told that it was the homeroom teacher’s role to. English from their peers.. reprimand the children, not mine. I was instructed to report future incidents to the classroom teacher and, if failing to get satisfaction, then go to the Kyoto-sensei.. Kancho. Unfortunately for the boy involved in the above incident, Finally, I want to talk about “kancho” and Japanese. he was subjected to a talk with the school principal,. children. Maybe the reader will be surprised that I will. before being forced to apologize to me in person (which. spend so much time on this “harmless” children’s prank.. he did in tears). That is what I call “traumatizing” a. I would like to say this practice is limited to boys, but. schoolchild!. I have had girls do it to me, too. My understanding. I was soon able to put this new kancho reporting. is that Japanese children have learned this form of. procedure to the test at another school. After catching. sexual abuse from popular children’s animes and so-. the offending boy (who had attempted to flee), I paraded. called “warai-bangumi”. Although it does seem to be a. him to the teacher and informed the teacher of the. staple in many adult stand-up comedy routines, I have. offense. Again, the teacher found this very amusing. never seen Japanese children do it to each other or any. and started laughing out loud. Later, the Kyoto-sensei. Japanese adults.. was able to impress upon the teacher the seriousness of. Foreign AETs seem to be the unique target of this. what had happened and the teacher apologized to me.. finger jab in the anus. I literally lost count of the. Kancho is not a harmless prank, it can cause injury, it. number of times I have been “kancho-ed.” I sometimes. is very disrespectful and it is sexual harassment. As I. thought my friendly class manner was to blame,. stated, as far as I know, it does not occur anywhere else. but the Internet AET discussion boards are full of. in the world, only in Japan. I believe the first grade is. similar complaints about kancho incidents. It is sexual. not too early for teachers to tell their schoolchildren not. harassment and should not be tolerated. It reflects. to do this. I have been kancho-ed by first graders!. very badly on Japan. I know of no other country where children engage in this type of sexual harassment of. Motivational Opportunities. adults. The sad truth is that sometimes Japanese teachers. In their chapter on motivation, Good and Brophy. whom I complained to actually thought it was funny. mention “inclusion of higher-level objectives” [10].. and were not stern with the child perpetrators. This. Young people can understand the necessity for studying. insensitivity on the part of the teachers made me decide. their native language, math, science and other practical. that I would have to try to stamp out kancho by myself.. subjects that they may need someday in their future. Whenever it occurred to me, I would turn to the (usually). careers. Learning a foreign language that will rarely. boy, get down on his level and look into his eyes and say,. be used in day-to-day life is not so intuitive. When they. “Kancho wa honto ni hazukashii desu! Sore wo shinaide. are only exposed to the language two or three times in a. kudasai!” Generally, this was answered with a “gomen-. year, its usefulness is even less clear.. nasai” which then ended the incident. Children dealt. School children need to know why they are learning. with in this manner did not seem to suffer any ill effects. English. I believe some achievable “higher-level” goal. and would participate in the English class as if nothing. must be given to the children for them to want to. had happened.. learn English. Certainly, playing entertaining games. One incident was blown all out of proportion by. to reinforce the learned English phrases is popular. a teacher who reported me to her superiors for. with the children and sometimes AETs must fend off. “traumatizing” a schoolchild. After a blatant kancho. a barrage of requests to play some game the children. － 178 －.

(8) 教室にＡＥＴがいる once played with another AET. Children need more. Notes and references:. important incentives than entertaining games. Such a higher-level goal might be learning English as a means. [1] Looking in Classrooms, Sixth Edition, Thomas L.. to effectively communicate with non-Japanese speaking. Good and Jere E. Brophy, 1994, Harper Collins College. people.. Publishers, ISBN 0-06- 501918-0. Giving school children the goal of completing a project. [2] “Teacher Domination of Classroom Communication”,. by communicating with similarly aged school children. Ibid, p. 28. from another country is a very effective way to motivate. [3] Chapter 4 “Management I : Preventing Problems”,. children to learn English. The project can be as simple. ibid, p. 128. as exchanging Christmas/New Year ’s cards with. [4] Ibid, p. 132. another classroom on the other side of the world. There. [5] Ibid, p. 135. are Internet sites dedicated to fostering international. [6] Ibid, p. 136. interaction and cooperation between schoolchildren.. [7] Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching,. The International Education and Resource Network. Second Edition, Jack L. Richards and Theodore S.. (IEARN at http://www.iearn.org) is one such site which. Rogers, Cambridge Language Teaching Library, 2001,. has countless projects ranging from exchanging art. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00843-3, p. 70. to promoting tourism, making films, environmental. [8] Good and Brophy, page 469. activism, and hundreds more. The database of projects. [9] Ibid, p. 188. can be searched by subject, age group and language.. [10] Ibid, p. 229. Communication for the collaborative projects is achieved through regular mail or, if time zones permit, via teleconferencing over the Internet using special software or even Skype. Speaking basic English to communicate with the foreign schoolchildren is an important part of the projects. The goal of completing a project in collaboration with other schoolchildren is a very powerful incentive to learn a foreign language, especially when the children know they will have to communicate face to face via the Internet. As mentioned above, some of the projects lend themselves just as well to the study of history or science as they do to the study of English. Conclusion In this paper I have collected many of my experiences teaching English in Japanese primary schools. I want to stress that my overall impression of the Japanese elementary schools was very positive. I have only focused on problem areas needing improvement. I know Japanese teachers are very busy and probably do not look forward to government-mandated teaching of English. Effective teamwork with the AET will make a big difference in creating a positive language learning experience for elementary schoolchildren. Setting a realistic goal of communicating with other school children around the world would be a strong incentive to learn English and, when combined with a science or history project, can actually make the teacher’s life easier.. － 179 －.

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