Mayukaが言いたい放題！

January, 2007 Vol.55 No.12

M: The other day I was working with a foreign teacher giving a seminar titled; “Building Skills Now for the Future” to kindergarten teachers and parents of kindergarten children. I was the translator but I got caught up in the teacher’s energy and passion and began to feel like the speaker herself.
R: If you just translate words from English to Japanese the feeling and passion that was in the English words just dies doesn’t it.
M: Yes, and as I got into it, I began to realize how difficult it is to keep our separate roles and work as a team. I really valued the time that we had spent preparing and getting a clear understanding between us about the goals that we were trying to achieve before giving the seminar.
R: In this instance, because you had done that, you were successful, right?
M: Yes, and I think that in the classroom, team-teaching is the same.
R: In the past, I have done team-teaching. There were two of us in the classroom teaching the students and I would agree.
M: About a year ago, I watched a demo class being team-taught. I remember thinking to myself, wouldn’t this be ok if there were only one teacher instead of two in the same class.
R: What do you mean?
M: Well in that class there were two teachers, one Japanese and one non-Japanese. The non-Japanese teacher explained something to the students in English. Then the Japanese teacher used different words and explained what the other teacher had said in more detail - in English.
R: Wow! That Japanese teacher must have had a great command of English!
M: Yes. So, I thought that the Japanese teacher could have done the class just fine by himself.
R: Yeah, I see what you mean. What was the non-Japanese teacher’s role in the team?
M: I had the same question, so I asked them after the class. They said that working together to make lesson plans was their main “partnership” role.
R: And that is what they called “team teaching”?
M: Yes. But, after hearing that, I think the Japanese teacher could have done it alone.
R: For sure, having two people do the job of one is not efficient. Having said that, if the two teachers were not getting in each other’s way, that was a much better class than average.
M: Umm …Usually I hear that foreign teachers in team-taught classes are mainly used as “human tape recorders”.
R: There are worse cases. Such as the Japanese teachers who translate ever little thing that the non-Japanese teacher says into Japanese supposedly for the “students’ benefit.”
M: Really, that’s terrible! The students would never try to understand what is being said in English!
R: Exactly, they don’t. The students just become lazy, bored, bodies in chairs. Then the Japanese teacher tells the other teacher that the students are quiet because they are “shy”.
M: Well, that happens even when Japanese teachers teach by themselves. When teachers try to conduct classes all in English to stretch the students’ English ability, at times they will see blank stares of incomprehension. At these times, most Japanese teachers will “explain” in Japanese.
R: When the teacher does that, the teacher kills the need for students to listen to English and the need for them to try to think and understand for themselves. Basically, the teacher kills the students’ motivation.
M: Since our students are in an EFL environment, the more that we teachers can expose them to listening to English as well as having them use their 5 senses to try to think and decipher meaning, the better. So I can see the merits of trying to carry out the class all in English. However, if all the teacher is going to do is to translate into Japanese any English that the students are having the slightest problem with, I think that the way of conducting the class needs to be re-thought to be more effective, and one that leaves the students with a very clear image, impression, and residual learning of what was being taught.
R: Right. Because even if the students are exposed to a shower of input, if the level of English is not near their actual level and must always be translated, then very little or nothing will remain with the students. If the input is close to the students’ levels so that they can gain comprehension by themselves, then they can at least grasp it and have a positive motivational feeling of success from this experience.
M: Yes, that is it. It is the same when parents scold their children. If the parent keeps droning on, what is being said begins to be naturally tuned out by the child and not remembered.
R: Teachers should create a need for students to understand the English that they are listening to, and keep the English input near students’ levels of comprehension so that they are being stretched but not unrealistically bombarded. One good example of this was a very effective team-teaching demo class that I observed a few years ago.
M: What was it like?
R: The non-Japanese teacher explained the next activity to the students in English close to the students’ overall level of comprehension. Then it was the Japanese teacher’s turn.
M: I expect that the Japanese teacher then translated everything into Japanese. Am I wrong?
R: Yes. You are wrong. The Japanese teacher then turned to the students and said, “In your groups, please tell each other in Japanese what you think the teacher just said.” He then circulated among the groups listening to what they were saying to check if they had understood. He also made comments like: “Yes, that is right.” and “Almost, but not quite. Keep trying.”
M: Hmmm, that is a very clever way to do it. By doing that, the students actually have to listen to what the teacher is saying in English. And even if the students individually didn’t get all of it, by allowing the group members to talk and share information, the students can piece it together. It also gives the students the message that they do not have to understand all of what was said, which is important for developing guessing meaning from context skills.
R: With this example, you can see how the team-teaching pair has changed the definition of the Japanese teacher’s role from “teacher” to “facilitator”.
M: What do you mean?
R: In other words, the Japanese teacher is “checking” on the groups, not giving them the answers as a “teacher”. Also, by checking the groups, the teachers can discover the students’ real comprehension ability and catch any group that is going off in the wrong direction before the activity begins.
M: Oh, I see. Also, the Japanese teacher is acting as a counselor as well, by listening to the groups and providing feedback. I am sure that it must be difficult to resist the temptation to just tell the students the answers. What a good teacher!
R: That’s right! It is easy to say, but hard to do and not impossible. １＋１=１is a huge waste of time、１＋１=２ or more is excellent. To achieve the second equation, the teachers must build a worthwhile teaching framework for both teachers to participate and contribute.

Building Skills Now for the Future
少し前までの情報化社会では、いかに正確に分析・分類し応用することから、より早く正解に到達できるかという能力が求められていました。ところが、すでに始まっているコンセプチュアル社会では、まったく別な能力が必要とされます。それは、ものごとを全体として捉え、すでにあるのではない正解を作り出す能力です。このあたりのことに興味がおありの方は、Daniel H. Pink著のA whole New Mindをお読みください。日本では、大前研一さんの訳でハイコンセプトというタイトルで出版されています。

human tape recorders
一時、生徒に生の英語を聞かせることを目的として、外国人の先生には、テープレコーダーのように英文を繰り返し読んでもらうといったことが良く聞かれましたが、それはとても失礼なことであると同時に、非常にもったいないことだと思います。外国人の先生を普段の授業の中に招きいれることの意味はどこにあるのでしょうか。個人的に私は、それは、教室というライブな空間の中で、日本人ではない先生とのインタラクションをするという経験を持つことだと思います。

Teachers should create a need for students …
２００６年９月号の時にも触れましたが、生徒たちが自ら聞こうとしたり知ろうとしたりしない限り、指導者側がどんなに一所懸命になっても、そこに本当の意味での学びは起きません。EFL環境の学習者にとって、英語学習において、学びへの動機を日常生活での必要性と重ねて期待することはできません。ですから、教室の中では、時にはゲームというアプローチで、また時にはテストで結果を出すという目標を利用するなどの必要があります。

teacher, facilitator, counselor
情報化社会の中での先生の役割は、あふれる情報の中から必要なものを切り取って生徒たちに伝達することでした。ところが、今とこれからの先生は、情報を伝達すると言う意味での教える能力以外に、生徒たちの学びをソフトとハードの両面から整えて支えるファシリテーターとしての役割や、また、生徒たち自身の学びを助けるカウンセラーとしての役割も果たすというマルチな能力が必要とされます。

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