JET Program Needs a Boost - Editorial Comment
updated: 00/08/16 00:11
Perhaps I should preface this editorial by saying that it actually began as a point form e-mail response to February's JET Program Needs a Boost?h article by Yuri Yamamoto and has been written up at Crystal's request. In case you missed the last edition for some reason it is important to know that Yamamoto-san informed us that top government bureaucrats, concerned with Japan's continuing incompetence in English?h, are considering strengthening Japan's JET program. The government's plan, however, faces a number of hurdles including fading interest?h ? presumably on both sides of the creek.
Last month's article on the Japanese government's efforts to boost waning interest in the JET Programme struck a chord with me ? here is why. Although I think that the JET Program is a very worthwhile institution, I was regularly dismayed with the ineffectiveness of both the instructional methods employed by Japanese Language Teachers (JLTs) and the manner in which I was employed in the classroom. Since there were 12 JLTs in my school and it was ranked somewhere around the middle of the prefectural pack I can, I expect, safely conclude that this problem exists widely. (Before anyone gets upset, let me say that I generally liked the people with which I worked, but I didn't think that most of them were very good teachers of English.)
Japan, like the rest of the industrialized world, is increasingly concerned with accountability in the workplace. In Ontario this mandate is currently being extended to Education. Under the current economic pressures it is unlikely to be long before accountability, in some form, comes to Japan's educational system. But if the JET Program is widely ineffective then it is simply hard to justify the annual 35 billion yen per annum tax expenditure. If I thought that my “hard-earned tax yen?h were going to ineffective English instruction my interest would also fade. In my opinion then the boost that the JET Program requires must include a package to increase the effectiveness of ALTs in the classroom.
In order to demonstrate the value of the JET Program JETs need to be effectively employed. But there is a systemic limitation which JETs face ? particularly ALT's. ALTs are "assistants" to the JLT. They are invited guests of the institution in which they are employed. Consequently, they hold a socio-emotional position in their school that is in line with their guest status. This being the case, ALTs are in no position to instruct the JLTs on how to change their instructional methods in order to make better use of the ALTs talents. Moreover, ALT's are young and most do not have any formal ESL training. Nevertheless, Japanese teachers desperately need a program of instruction in which they can learn how to employ their ALT's more effectively.
Unfortunately, after having taught for a few years teachers generally become entrenched in their ways and unreceptive to new teaching methods and styles - a problem which the sensei status only exacerbates. It is for this reason that the Japanese government, if it wants to sustain the JET Program, should turn its attentions to new teachers. Since ALTs are employed throughout Japan and intend to stay, indeed grow, Japanese "teacher's colleges" should include at least one course as part of their curriculum that deals with how to effectively employ an ALT. Moreover, JLTs should be provided with, or perhaps required to engage in, professional development style remedial instruction. (I did, of course, note the current and commendable efforts on the part of the JET program and respective prefectural Boards of Education to discuss problems. It is my contention, however, that this effort is woefully inadequate. It needs added to it a comprehensive teacher education package that includes a role for the ALT in its mandate.
Sincerely,
Michael Kurak
Saitama ALT, 98-99