Articles by May, 2018

What is the purpose of a school trip?
 
A school trip should have great educational value. School trips can provide a wonderful opportunity for students to gain experience and see and take part in something they are learning about in the classroom. There are obvious limitations with a classroom environment but with a school trip you can bring the lesson to life. 
The benefits of school trips include:
 
Visual awareness and enhancement of a school subject
Conquering challenges
Problem solving
Boosting personal and educational development
Developing leadership skills
Encouraging teamwork
Learning about a new culture (especially when travelling abroad)
Building trust
Aiding memory
Increasing self-confidence
Improving school performance 
Cultivating friendships
Sparking interest
When the trip is over you could hand out rewards to everyone who attended or even medals for special achievements during the trip, such as any fears conquered.
 
What has to go into school trip planning?
 
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Craft activities
Craft activities are great fun in the classroom and are especially effective young learners. Activities can take more time to prepare in advance, and can turn out to be messy, but they also create meaningful learning opportunities and help make language seem more real. Below are some of the advantages of doing craft in the EFL classroom as well as some top tips for carrying them out.
Advantages of craft activities
Creativity
Craft encourages children’s creativity and allows them to express themselves and their own designs. As with all creative tasks, this works best when children are given a clear template or outline of what they will do and all they need to do is personalize small parts for themselves.
Kinaesthetic
Young learners especially tend to be kinaesthetic. They interact with the world by touching and exploring, which make the objects more real for them. Craft activities tap into this natural inquisitiveness by getting them to work with things they can ...

When a school looks for a new teacher particularly at the junior level, they create a picture of the teacher they desire. Every school has certain considerations for the teaching staffs and these depend on the setting of the school and the children. While the traits considered for teachers may be different, there are some essential teacher training courses that are mandatory for every novice teacher to ace their competency. Below I have discussed some of the most popular and obligatory teacher training courses.
Pre Primary Teacher Training- Training for the preschool teacher has gained a lot of acceptance as it lays strong establishment for later learning of a kid. With the international teacher training coming to light, the requirement for teachers who possess necessary qualification to teach worldwide classroom has increased enormously.
Montessori Teacher Training- The training focuses on the method of teaching developed by Dr. Maria Montessori. The child-oriented educational ...

~~There are similarities and differences between Adults and Young Learners (YL) as language learners. It is important to remember that learners are all individuals so the ideas below are general not specific to a learner type.
Adults
 Can deal with abstract concepts
 Can deal with metalinguistics
 Can work independently
 Understands discourse e.g. will listen to what the other person says & use that to shape their response
 Generally internalize all language during individual tasks
 Have decided to study English for their own reasons
Both
 Need drilling
 Need clear goals & purpose for all tasks
 Needs language presented in context
 Require a variety of learning styles to be present in a lesson
Young Learners
 Need concrete (not abstract) vocabulary
 Need a lot of emotional support
 Must have clear, obvious meanings to all phrases
 Enjoy playing around with language, inc. non-grammatical utterances
 Often externalize language during individual tasks
 Are ...

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NB: The information contained within these notes is generic and while is relevant for Asian learners, not just Japanese, not all learners will have the problems outlined below. Learners are individuals and these notes are not meant to be exhaustive but an introduction to the issues faced by Japanese/Asian learners.
Despite studying English for at least three years in Junior High School, three years in High School and the possibility of two-four years at university, many Japanese adults still have real problems using English. Although recently teachers have been using more communicative methods in Junior High Schools, translation is the main method of teaching in High School and this is the system most of our adult learners have been through – where the focus has been on grammar and reading. Most Japanese English teachers are reluctant to speak English themselves, or may not have high communicative ability, as most learning in schools is aimed at getting students through exams.
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