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Error Correction in foreign language classes is something every teacher must do at one time or another. After all, there is a right way, and countless wrong ways, to say something.
Like almost everything else we do in the classroom, it's not always what we do (in this case, correcting incorrect student production), but how we do it. This post will give several examples and a brief explanation of Error Correction or Feedback for individuals (Teacher-> Student), and at the end give an example for Error Correction with the whole class.  A more thorough discussion of Error Correction and Feedback will follow at a later time.

There are 2 major divisions in Error Corretion in published literature:

1. Implicit vs. Explicit Feedback, and
2. Corrected vs. Uncorrected Feedback.

Explicit feedback is thought to be less communicative in nature, and tends to draw students' attention more to form.
Implicit feedback is thought to be more communicative in nature, and so, while still giving corrective feedback, to encourage more and continued focus on meaning.
Corrected feedback, like explicit feedback, is thought to draw students' attention more to form, and less to meaning.
Uncorrected feedback tends to promote learning through student self-reflection.

Given these features of the 4 types of corrective feedback, the order of preference for using these kinds of feedback in a meaning-centered, communicative langauge learning-based class would be:

1. Implicit, Uncorrected feedback (more communicative, less focus on form);
2. Explicit, Uncorrected feedback (more focus on form, but emphasizes student reflection for learning) OR Implicit, Corrected feedback (more communicative, though more direct focus on form);
3. Explicit, Corrected feedback (less communicative, more direct focus on form).

Examples of Feedback

(S= student; T= teacher)

Implicit, Uncorrected feedback

• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T (emphasized)- ‘LIke.’  Or, like a question, T- ‘lIKE?’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs?’ 
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Try again!’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Pardon me?’; ‘I don’t understand.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Did you say ‘like’ ?’ 
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Try again.’ or
  T- ‘Heee.......?’ or ‘He what?’
  Or T- ‘He playS tennis.  He LIKE dogs?’

Explicit, Uncorrected feedback

• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T - ‘Not like.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘That’s not right.
  (That’s not how we say it.)  Try again.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs?’
  (That’s not right.)  Not LIKE.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Did you say ‘like’ ?
  That’s not right.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Try again.’ or
  T- ‘Heee.......?’ or ‘He what?’ 

Implicit, Corrected feedback

• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He likes dogs.’ or
  T- ‘He likeS dogs.’, with verbal or gestured emphasis.
•   S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs. He LIKES dogs.’ or
  T- ‘He LIKE dogs?  He LIKES dogs.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Do you mean ‘likes’?’.              
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘You said like.  Do you mean likes?’

Explicit, Corrected feedback

• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘You should say, He likeS dogs.’
  S- ‘He like dogs.’ T - ‘Not like.  Likes.’   
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘No. Not He LIKE dogs.   He LIKES dogs.’
  or T- ‘Did you say He LIKE dogs?  It’s He LIKES dogs.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs?’
  ‘He LIKES dogs.’ is the right way to say it.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘(No.) You should say ‘likes’ ’.  or   
  T- ‘You said like.  It’s likes.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ ‘Not LIKE.  HE is the third
  person singular, so it’s not like, it’s LIKES.’

A less direct method of error correction is to make mental note of common mistakes heard during speaking activities, and then to write the incorrect pattern on the blackboard. Then, ask the whole class what is wrong, and also what is the right way to say something. AND THEN WRITE THAT ON THE BLACKBOARD, TOO. 

In this way,

• students are asked to reflect on what the correct form is; 
• no one student is singled out (limiting individual student stress); 
• communicative- (ie., a meaning-) focus during the speaking activity is maintained; 
• and all the class participates in a learning experience.

What, How and WHEN

What we do, and how we do something are important. The other pervasive choice is WHEN to say something. In the Eigo Noto classes especially, the focus is on COMMUNICATION. If the students are speaking in Japanese, English, another languauge, pointing, gesturing, or in any other way making you understand, and you actually understand, for that moment, perhaps no error correction is necessary. Then you can think about making the mistake a learning experience later, for the whole class.

He said the hardest part for him, and for the students, has been knowing what the classes are all about. The list of questions included:

• Are the Eigo Noto classes preparation for Junior High School English classes? 
• Are the Eigo Noto classes English Conversation classes? 
• Are they about communication?
• Why is there so much focus on speaking English in the workbook? 
• How are Eigo Noto classes different from other subjects/classes?
• Eigo Noto classes don't have any tests...

These kinds of questions have been in my head for a year, and I have often heard other teachers voicing the same questions.

Whenever I go to a new school, I always ask the Koucho-sensei (school Principal), "What are your hopes or goals for my classes at your school?" And I always get the same answer, "Improving students' communication skills." There are other answers I get as well, but every Principal has put a priority on Communication.

So to address the HRT and his students' confusion about the goals of the Eigo Noto classes,
This would label an obvious goal for the classes for everyone to think about. There might be different class labels, such as 'World Culture', too. Just giving each class a clear name, and content or goal, would do a lot to help both students and teachers more successfully approach the learning task at hand. Throughout this year, I have heard a wide variety of class names/titles used by the toban (class leader) at the opening aisatsu of the Eigo Noto classes. How many have you heard?

Regarding confusion about teaching communication, in my 15 years of teaching in Japan, what I've seen some English teachers call Communication has really left me scratching my head sometimes. Clearly making Communication the name (or one of the names) of the classes would be an effective way of forcing everyone involved - students, teachers, administrators and textbook publishers - to have a serious discussion about what real communication is. Having an in-class, regional or national dialog about this could be very fruitful.

I have often had reason to ask why almost everyone in Japan studies English for years, but most adults are unable to have even the simplest English conversation. A common answer is "We're an island country!" Well, I lived in Indonesia for 2 years before I came to Japan, and it's an island country, too. And LOTS of people, with A LOT LESS education, speak a functional English. So I have a hard time accepting this reasoning. Perhaps an island nation that refused contact with the outside world for centuries would be a better explanation.
There are other reasons that are commonly put forth, and no doubt you have your own. But personally I have often wondered if, among other things, the socially-hierarchical nature of the Japanese language and society lend themselves to a handicap to true communication. It is often more important just say, 'Hai!', especially when talking (or rather, listening to) superiors, but does this really demonstrate comprehension?

And in the classrooms, a Japanese junior high school home stay student once observed,

'In America students raise hands to ask questions; but in Japan, students usually raise hands to answer questions.'

And my foreign friends agree on another point- 90%+ of Japanese people, when asked (in Japanese) 'Pardon?', go mute or stutter at best; seldom does a Japanese person repeat what they have just said to us. And asking a Japanese person to speak slowly, something I had to do as a learner of Spanish, Indonesian and Japanese, usually gets a positive response for only 1 or 2 sentences. And then speaking returns to 'normal' speed. These two points have been foremost in my learning 3 foreign languages; in Japan, these points have, and continue, to handicap communication with native speakers.

These are personal experiences I've had in Japan regarding why English is so difficult to learn for students here. No doubt you have other experiences or ideas. But regardless of why communication skills are lacking in young (or older) students, here or anywhere, let us next address Communication Skills.

There are 2 basic skills to Communication, Listening and Speaking.

To any adult, whether involved in education, business or personal relationships, the importance of listening skills should come as no surprise. And for the purposes of Communication (as well as Language Learning), we need to go one step further- Listening AND REPEATING.
Repeating what has been heard is often used as way to confirm what has been said. 'I have a dog.' 'A dog?' Or when someone tells us their telephone number on the phone, we usually repeat the number back to them again.
And for language learning, I think this is one of the most important skills, as well- Listening and Repeating. And I have been wondering if just the ability to do this repeatedly is one of the features of the language classroom that makes it different from learning language naturally.

Speaking well is something that takes practice. Again, the classroom setting allows students to say the same thing again and again. For students, or natural language learners, just saying something once seldom leads to speaking competence, let alone long-term memory.
As teachers, and especially those of young learners, we need to be creative in doing repetitive speaking activities just to avert boredom for the students. In Japan, this is often easily accomplished just by having students play Janken/Rock-Paper-Scissors first (it also conveniently serves to determine the order of speakers). See Janken Conversation Rounds and Janken 4's for a variety of ways to use this strategy.

Another aspect of speaking is simply having something to say. At a deeper level, this also requires self-knowledge. And the ability to give it a voice. Degrees of Introversion and Extroversion are different in all of us. There are probably also cultural tendencies that might make one stronger than the other in a given culture.

There are not-too-difficult classroom activities that prepare students for speaking, such as Brainstorming or Previewing, that I deal with on the ConverstionalFluency website. Another activity that I think would work well for elementary and junior high school students are the SOCC (Student's Own Conversation Cards) by Duane Kindt at this website. I will be working in the future to adapt his approach for elementary school.

We also need to be sensitive to what are known as Affective Factors, or simply said, students' feelings. Creating a speaking environment that reduces stress, and risk, for the speaker is very important. Compare

1. Standing and speaking once in front of the class, and 
2. Taking turns giving a speech with the other members of your small group. 
3. Students making pairs, each saying a speech, and then forming new pairs and speaking again. 

Given these three activities, in what order would you put them for maximum student success with the least amount of stress?

Clear training in Communication and Conversation Skills is not that hard, in my opinion, but is something that anyone, in any culture, would greatly benefit from. Heck, it might even reduce violence and war.
The ConFluency Card game, and many of the other activities on this website, are activities that teach and practice these basic communication skills.
My own opinion is that many of these communication activities, and others, could be used in the lower elementary school grades, and used as a basis for building competence for later higher-speed and higher-level communicative interaction. At the lower grades these would be done in the native langauge, not only making it easier to teach (and for students to comprhend), but also building a foundation of communicative competence in the native language that will later be transferred to use with a foreign langauge.

To repeat, all of the school Principals I have asked in Japan have said they put a priority on improving Communication Skills for their students. Communication is such an all-encompassing parameter, as I have tried to discuss in limited detail, that making Communication a main theme or name of the Eigo Noto classes would do a lot towards bringing it to the front of teachers' and students' awareness, and towards giving the Eigo Noto classes a broad foundation upon which to build a many-faceted curriculum.

A very simple, yet fun and effective way of telling stories is to have students take turns, 1-by-1, telling one sentence of a story. After one student says a sentence from the story, then the next student has a turn to say one line.
Grouping can be done in a variety of ways:

• Students can be in groups of 3-4, telling the story 1-by-1 together;
• The whole class can be divided into groups, and each group (and each member within each group), in rounds, take turns telling one line of the story;
• The whole class can tell the story, volunteers giving the next sentence of the story.  This works well as a time filler at the end of lessons in Grade 6, Lesson 8: use Momotaro, The Peach Boy, or another well-known Japanese children's story.

In Grade 6 Lesson 8 students are asked to make an original story, or geki. Having students first do this in Japanese in small groups, and then doing the same story again as a whole class, is a very fun and interactive way to tell the story of The Giant Turnip, or any other well-known story.

I originally used this activity with traditional Japanese children's stories with adults, in English, in conversation classes- and it was a great success there, too.

Eigo Noto classes are not to discourage students from further English study, nor are the lessons meant to be Conversation Lessons. But what about students who CAN and WANT TO speak English?

Do you, or the HRTs you work with, ever insist that the Eigo Noto students interact in English? I sometimes hear Home Room Teachers exhorting kids to speak English together.
There are times when we want a student to speak English in the Eigo Noto lessons, to be sure- when listening and repeating words and phrases, or when checking accuracy in pronunciation, for example. And looking at the workbook itself, you could easily get the idea that the kids are supposed to be speaking English.
But as for student-to-student interaction in English,



there are voices from above, as well as implied expectations in the Mombusho Guidelines, that would not have us, as teachers, insisting that students interact in English in the Eigo Noto lessons.

This seemed obvious to me months ago. But an HRT/elementary school head English teacher recently returned from a Mombusho Eigo Noto training event and was telling me that she was told there that we should not be expecting the students to speak English. From the tone of her voice I got the feeling that not expecting the students to speak English in the Eigo Noto lessons was, for her, a striking and extraordinary idea.
Based on that conversation, I thought it worthwhile to discuss it here.

My thoughts on this points are based on these ideas:

1. ‘All students should feel a sense of success in the final activity.’ See the post here.
2. Not all students will be able to produce correct spoken English after 2-3 classes.
3. Eigo Noto classes are not to discourage students from further English study. (From the Ministry of Education’s Guidelines for Elementary English Education. See the post here.) This is also true for students of ability who CAN speak English.
4. Students don’t need to speak English to be able to communicate together.

If we can accept these points, it becomes easy to make a list of the things we can or should do, and those we shouldn’t, in Eigo Noto classes:

Things NOT to do in Eigo Noto classes

• Don’t choose, or require, a student to stand alone in the class and speak English unsupported by a teacher. This includes any lesson that finishes with a Show-and-Tell activity. (The Listen and Repeat CROSSFIRE activity is meant to test students’ pronunciation, for all to learn from, and demonstrates an exception to this rule. A teacher is there as support.)
• Don’t explicitly tell a student that they are saying something in English incorrectly (“That’s not right!”)
• Don’t insist that all, or individual, students perform tasks in English.
• Don’t expect students to speak English without A LOT of modeling and practice. And while they may be able to say the words and/or structures, meaning is something that will take even more time.

Ways to Structure Communication, and Spoken English, in Your Classes

• If you expect students to perform a speaking task in the last activity of the lesson series, model from the very first lesson the language you want them to produce. And then repeat the language, in both listening and speaking activities, again and again and again.
• Keep English langauge patterns very simple and very repetitive.
• Use vocabulary words that are commonly used in Japanese.  See suggested word groups here.
• Ask for volunteers to demonstrate spoken English to the whole class.
• Allow the whole class to respond in English as a single voice first. Then ask for a volunteer to say it again after the correct form has been identified by the whole class and confirmed by a teacher.
• If a student speaks English incorrectly, say the correct form for them to hear. Using a rising intonation at the end, like a question, can mean, ‘Is this what you meant to say?’ Or, give examples of the pattern, changing a word, to model the language by talking about yourself.
• In the whole class, when someone responds in Japanese, ask if anyone knows how to say it in English. If they don’t know the whole meaning, start breaking it down into smaller and smaller chunks- phrases first (blue shoes), and then single words (blue, shoes). Gesture, and point to examples, to help.
• When speaking to individual students, and they respond in Japanese, repeat back to them what they just said, in English. Or, make it an English question. (‘Onaka suita.’ -> ‘I’m hungry.’ or, ‘Oh, are you hungry?’)
• To support low-English ability students, prepare materials with pictures and written Japanese as much as possible.
• Use written English on the blackboard and in materials.
• Narrow the conversation in activities to simple, repetitive patterns. Some of the Eigo Noto lessons use several language structures in one lesson. The EigoNoto.com lessons have simplified the language in these lessons already.
• Use small group and pair speaking activities to advantage- these groupings lower student anxiety, allow for more direct interaction, and many other things.  See this post. And this one.
• Structure activities so that students can repeat the same language experience several times with different partners. Some partners will offer better modeling than others, assisting lower-skilled students to advance their ability. Repeating the experience allows students to learn from their own, and others, successes and mistakes.
• Make activities as communicative as possible. This is the most difficult to describe, but in simple terms, meaningful responses confirm comprehension. Responses can be verbal (Yes or No is the easiest to understand), active (Here is the FISH card.), gestures, or in Japanese.

With visual and written English support, spoken Japanese, spoken English and gestures, and enough repetitive practice, all students will have the best chance of successful communicative interchange, whether it’s in English or not. And those students who WANT to speak English get a chance to.

Here is  simple chant for Eigo Noto Grade 5 Lesson 9- What Would You Like?
To convert the file for using in the classroom, click on the video, copy the YouTube url, and paste it here.

Grade: 6
Lesson: 8 (1 of 4)
Target: Please help me. (writing an original story)
Materials: CD & player; Text


Greeting- 2 minutes
Teacher to Students- Listen &; Repeat (some or all)
Hello, Hi, Hey, Howdy, G’day, Good Morning, Hola, Aloha, Bon Jour, Bon Dia, Bon Journo, Ni Hao, Konnichiwa, Anyohaseyo, Sambaino, Kiola, Selamat Pagi (am) (pm-Siang), Shalom, Jambo, Asalamalekum, Zzdrastvet-yah, Namaste.

Janken 4’s- Warm-Up/Review/Conversation Skills Practice- 5 minutes
ALT/HRT: Janken and do the conversation first together, then with a few students to practice/demonstrate.
Students: Winner chooses one daily activity from lesson 7 to say in English or Japanaese. Each student Janken and Converse with 3 others in groups of 4. 
Blackboard:     
W) (Daily activity sentence in English or Japanese) I get up at 7.
L) Watashi wa 7-ji ni okimasu. (or- I get up at 7.)

Let’s Listen 1- 8 minutes
EigoNoto- page 50
CD- track 60
Students- Listen to the CD and write numbers 1-2-3-4 in the boxes. Check answers with seat partner. (1-Big Turnip; 2- Peach Boy; 3- Red Riding Hood; 4- boy with horse)
ALT/HRT- Play CD, check students answers

Story Telling in Rounds- The Big Turnip- 10 minutes
ALT/HRT- Introduce activity
Students- In small groups, one student at a time tell the next line in the story for The Big Turnip.

All Class Storytelling- The Big Turnip- 10 minutes
ALT/HRT- Introduce and assist the activity
Students- Volunteers students tell one line at a time for The Big Turnip.

Let’s Listen- 5 minutes
EigoNoto- page 52
CD- tracks 61-62-63
Students- Listen to CD and try to tell the meaning in Japanese after each track.

Let’s Chant- 5 minutes
CD- track 71.
Blackboard-

• Grandpa pulls the turnip.
• Grandma pulls Grandpa.
• The girl pulls Grandma. 
• The dog pulls the girl.
• The cat pulls the dog.
• The mouse pulls the cat.
• 1-2-3 Yo! Heave! Ho!

Students- Sing along with the CD.
ALT/HRT- Play the CD, lead the singing.

Storytelling Practice- if time
EigoNoto- page 50
Students- Choose one of the stories on page 50 for the whole class to tell the story 1-by-1 in Japanese (volunteers, or in order of small groups).

Wrap-Up- 3 minutes
(Present common mistakes to the whole class. Write the mistaken point on the blackboard, and ask if anybody can see the mistake.) Or-
HRT to Students, in Japanese:
-What did we talk about today? 
-Were there some words you already knew?
-Did you learn any new words?
-What was fun or interesting?
-What was difficult?
-How can we make that easier next time?

Closing- 1 minute
Students: ‘Thank you! Good bye!’
Teachers: ‘You’re welcome! Good bye!’

EigoNoto.com copyright 2010 Elton Ersch

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There are several ways to think of Team Teaching:

1. Two teachers sit down together and discuss what they want to study, what activities and materials will be used, who will lead which parts, etc..  The two teachers share responsibility for preparation and teaching, each providing their own strengths.
   
2.  One teacher is always the lead teacher, making the Lesson Plans and being the T1, or lead, teacher in the classes. The teachers don’t share responsibilities, other than the T2 teacher doing occasional support in the classroom. This is what ALTs sometimes call being a ‘tape recorder.’ Conversely, the situation could be that the ALT is alone in front of the class, and the HRT or JTE is almost uninvolved in the class, except for probably choosing the content of the class and asking the ALT to prepare the Lesson Plan and materials.
3. The two teachers take turns preparing for and leading classes.  Today, teacher A writes the Lesson Plan, prepares materials and leads the class. Tomorrow, teacher B writes the Lesson Plan, prepares materials and leads the class.
4. One of the teachers takes the lead role in Lesson Planning, but asks the T2 teacher to prepare content-focused activities and materials. The lead T1 teacher generally leads the class, but clearly signals when the T2 teacher is to take the lead role for the prepared activity.

   
It is not really fair to say that one way is better than another. In practice, you and your team teacher may, over time, have any or all of these work relationships.
In upcoming posts I will discuss in what situations each of these models may be advantageous.

With all of these chants and short dialogs to write on the blackboard,　I find there are times when I’d like to keep the students busy while I write. This is an easy-to-do activity I use to have seat pairs practice vocabulary while I'm writing.

Pairs play Janken first, and then the Winner (using pictures on a page in the Eigo Noto that I have chosen) can:

• Say the word in English, and the Janken Loser says the word in Japanese (or visa-versa);
• Say a short phrase, ‘Hot dog, please.’ or ‘Blue shoes.’ for example, and the Janken Loser points to the picture in the Eigo Noto;
• Say a word, and the Janken Loser says the word group (dog - animal; red -  color; soccer - sport).

Using this kind of activity, it’s easy to keep the kids practicing English for a few minutes while doing other things.

Grade: 6
Lesson: 7 (1 of 1)
Target: What Time Do You Get Up?
Materials: CD & player; Text; EigoNoto Chant (option)


Greeting
Teacher to Students- Listen & Repeat (some or all)
Hello, Hi, Hey, Howdy, G’day, Good Morning, Hola, Aloha, Bon Jour, Bon Dia, Bon Journo, Ni Hao, Konnichiwa, Anyohaseyo, Sambaino, Kiola, Selamat Pagi (am) (pm-Siang), Shalom, Jambo, Asalamalekum, Zzdrastvet-yah, Namaste.

Janken 4’s- Warm-Up/Review/Conversation Skills Practice
ALT/HRT: Janken and do the conversation first together, then with a few students to practice/demonstrate.
Students: Each student Janken and Converse with 3 others in groups of 4
Blackboard: 
W) I want to go to Italy.
L1) I want to go to Italy, too.
L2) I want to go to China.

Let’s Listen
EigoNoto- pages 44-45
CD- tracks 54 & 55. 1. tokyoエ -8- go to school. 2. sydneyオ -9- study at school. 3. beijingウ -7- get up. 4. moscow イ-2- be quiet. 5. dakarア -11- go to bed. 6. sao pauloク -8- take a bath. 7. new yorkキ -6- eat dinner. 8. vancouverカ -3- play soccer.
Students- listen to the CD and write times on clocks and place kana into the squares.
ALT/HRT- introduce activity, play CD, then check answers.

Daily Activities Chant
CD- track 57
EigoNoto- pages 44-45, the pictures in circles at the bottom.
Blackboard- (written vertically, for next activity)
get up/study/eat lunch/clean the room/play baseball/go home/watch TV/Mama says/go to bed!
ALT- introduce and lead the chant
Students- sing and clap along

Teachers’ Daily Routines
Blackboard- same list of daily activities from chant, same order, written vertically. also-
What time do you OO? At X.
ALT/HRT- take turns asking each other What time do you OO? and writing the answers in a grid on the blackboard. OMIT MINUTES, USE ONLY HOURS FOR TIME.

Repeat and Change the Pattern Speaking
Blackboard- Same as last 2 activities
ALT/HRT- Say one line at a time for students to repeat
Students- Listen and Repeat the daily schedule aloud together, in a big or small voice, changing the time to a true time for you.

Find 3 People- 5-10 minutes
Blackboard-
W) I get up at 7.
L) I get up at 7 (8).
ALT/HRT- Demonstrate together. Ask students to explain in Japanese to check comprehension.
Students- Interact in demonstration. Choose one phrase/sentence from the daily activities and make one for yourself. Then, all standing, make pairs. Winner starts, Loser uses the same phrase and a true time for him-/herself.

Alternate Final Activity-
What Does It Mean? Chant
Blackboard- list of daily activities, and
What does it mean? 3X
When you do this? Do-do-DO!
ALT/HRT- Lead the chant. Afer Do-do-DO! use gestures to show one of the  daily activities. Students guess what the meaning is. Then encourage students to try and act out the daily activities.
Students- Sing along, then guess the meaning of the gestures. Then students volunteer to do gestures in front of the class.

Wrap-Up - 3 minutes
(Present common mistakes to the whole class. Write the mistaken point on the blackboard, and ask if anybody can see the mistake.) Or-
HRT to Students, in Japanese:
-What did we talk about today? 
-Were there some words you already knew?
-Did you learn any new words?
-What was fun or interesting?
-What was difficult?
-How can we make that easier next time?

Closing- 1 minute
Students: ‘Thank you! Good bye!’
Teachers: ‘You’re welcome! Good bye!’

Discussion- How many hours are there going once around the world? (24) The map on pages 44-45 show times around the world for the time given in Japan. Many countries are several hours across from east to west.  Interestingly, China, as big as it is, has only 1 time zone- everybody lives on Beijing (Peking) time!

EigoNoto.com copyright 2010 Elton Ersch

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There are so many English and foreign words that Japanese elementary school students already know.  One EigoNoto.com activity, WYAN (Words You Already Know), shows how to activate this knowledge in the classroom.
The common word families used in the Eigo Noto are

food, sports, animals, colors

My own experience shows that these are the groups of words most students know, as well. Keeping these groups in mind will help you the next time you need to prompt students to tell you some English words they already know.

Grade: 5
Lesson: 9 (2 of 2)
Target: What would you like? OO, Please.
Materials: Text; Scissors; Dice


Greeting- 2 minutes
Teacher to Students- Listen & Repeat (some or all)
Hello, Hi, Hey, Howdy, G’day, Good Morning, Hola, Aloha, Bon Jour, Bon Dia, Bon Journo, Ni Hao, Konnichiwa, Anyohaseyo, Sambaino, Kiola, Selamat Pagi (am) (pm-Siang), Shalom, Jambo, Asalamalekum, Zzdrastvet-yah, Namaste.

Listen, Repeat and Point- food names- 5 minutes
EigoNoto- page 77 or 79
ALT/HRT- Say names of foods for students to repeat. First time in order, second time in random order and more and more quickly.
Students- Listen, Repeat and Point to food pictures in the EigoNoto.

Chant- What would you like?- 5 minutes
EigoNoto- pages 77 or 79.
Blackboard-
What clap 2X What would you like? clap-clap
Juice clap 2X  Juice, please. clap-clap
ALT/HRT- Lead chanting and singing.
Students- Chant/sing along. Choose a student with dice to choose foods from pages 77/79.

Janken 4’s- Warm-Up/Review/Conversation Skills Practice- 5 minutes
ALT/HRT: Janken and do the conversation first together, then with a few students to practice/demonstrate.
Students: Each student Janken and Converse with 3 others in groups of 4
Blackboard:   
W) OO, please.
L) (point to the food(s) in the book)

Activity Preparation- 8 minutes
Materials- Scissors
Students- cut out ONE page food cards, page 77 or 79.

Clue BINGO- 10 minutes
Materials- dice
Blackboard- What would you like?
EigoNoto- page 58
Students- put 9 food cards onto the Bingo grid.
ALT/HRT- Roll dice to choose a student. Lead all students to repeat “What would you like?”
Students- After one student is chosen with dice, all students repeat after a teacher, “What would you like?”. Then the chosen student says one food name. Students who turn over 3 cards in a row get BINGO!

Activity- Today’s Special Lunch- 10-15 minutes
EigoNoto- page 59
Materials- cut food cards from page 77/79
Blackboard-  
L) What would you like?
W) OO and OO, please.
L1) Here you are.
L2) Sorry! No OO!
W) Thank you. Good bye!
L) You’re welcome. Good bye!
ALT/HRT- Explain and Demonstrate the activity. Ask students to explain once in Japanese to check their comprehension.
Students- In free-moving pairs, pairs Janken, Loser starts. Winner orders 2 foods/drinks, and keep the cards.

Wrap-Up- 3 minutes
(Present common mistakes to the whole class. Write the mistaken point on the blackboard, and ask if anybody can see the mistake.) Or-
HRT to Students, in Japanese:
-What did we talk about today? 
-Were there some words you already knew?
-Did you learn any new words?
-What was fun or interesting?
-What was difficult?
-How can we make that easier next time?

Closing- 1 minute
Students: ‘Thank you! Good bye!’
Teachers: ‘You’re welcome! Good bye!’

Discussion- Ordering in a restaurant when you can't speak the language- What are your options?

• Point to pictures in the menu. Very easy in Japan, but not all countries use pictures in the menu as much as Japan.
• Use a phrase book- look up what you want in your own language and then point to the translated version in the foreign language.
• As you walk into the restaurant, look carefully at what other people are eating.  Then when the waitress comes, gesture that you want what 'that guy' is having.

EigoNoto.com copyright 2010 Elton Ersch

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In the English classroom, we are usually doing teaching, practicing, reviewing or testing activities.  

Using a testing activity at the wrong time can create negative feelings in the students.  Be careful to understand which activities are testing in nature, and use them at the right times!
The greatest challenge when using a testing activity in the classroom is


to make it a low-affective experience for the students (remember LDK #2? Be Mindful of Your Students’ Feelings).  You can:

• Make it a game (SWAT, using fly-swatters at the blackboard, Karuta style);
• Make it part of a game (losing students in Hot Potato must stand and say a sentence/question after each round);
• You can ask first for choral answers, then ask for a single volunteer; 
• Let the students decide, then answer, as a group;
• Let a pair of students speak in front of the teacher apart from the others; 
• Students can check each others’ work, especially when using the workbook;
• Students, after passing the test in front of the teacher, become teachers, and can then test the other students. 

Testing in a low-affective way is not easy to do--be aware and be creative!

Go to the next post in the Lesson Development Keys series.

Students in our classes usually have mixed abilities.
Using small groups well allows, and challenges, the students who know the material to teach the students who don’t know it yet.  The higher level students thus become teachers, and review and refine what they know.  The lower level students also feel less stress and anxiety from being instructed by a peer, rather than by a teacher.
Some groupings used in EigoNoto.com activities include:

• all-class
• seat partners
• small groups (usually 3 or 4 students)
• paired rows
• moving pairs.

There are many considerations when choosing a group size. Some of these include:

• How much time will students actually get to use the language, both productively and receptively?
• Will one grouping work better than another to motivate students to use the target langauge (pairs will often do this better than whole group).
• Will students become unfocused and off-task if given too much freedom? Having a clear pattern of movement and another student waiting can help a lot in this situation (paired rows).

(See also Making Group Work Work.)

Go to the last post in the Lesson Development Keys series.

This is the last in a 9-part series- Lesson Development Keys.   

When possible, finish your lessons with an exciting, uplifting or positive experience that will motivate the students to look forward to the next English class.

Having an Australian points map in the students’ English Files makes this easy (or circle points in their Eigo Noto)--let students color in the points earned in that day’s lesson.
The points are free to you--give them freely (but be careful to give high points for games of chance, like Janken, and lower points for games of skill and ability, to help motivate low-level students who won’t score well in games of skill.)

Following the rule of LDK #5, to place Free Speaking activities at the end of your lesson, is also a sure way to leave your students feeling good about the lesson (and to repeat, looking forward to the next English class). Free speaking activities tend to (or ought to!) be communicative in nature- most people, and especially the young, really like nothing more than talking to their friends (after all, isn’t that one of the primary goals of language use?!).  And a communicative activity at the end of a lesson is a great way for students to really USE what you’ve just taught them- students and teachers... everybody is engaged, interactive and feeling success!

Wrap-up for the 9 LDK’s

Using the 9 Lesson Development Keys to structure your lessons will set you up so that your lessons are meaningful and engaging for the students, help to keep their motivation high, and make lessons and activities effective and enjoyable learning experiences for you and your students. And your lessons will naturally Finish With a BANG!

Recently while teaching Grade 5 Lesson 1 I was reminded of the importance of teaching vocabulary in word groups. There are words that usually or always have a certain order; in this case, blue shoes. Lesson 5-5-1 teaches colors and clothing names; the vocabulary can be taught separately, but there is advantage in teaching the words together. As a rule, when possible, try to put a few words together when doing Listen and Repeat (and Point) activities. Or,  for such activities as Pair Karuta, Ohajiki game, Eraser/Keyword game, use whole sentences or questions.

A simple rule to remember is: Don't teach vocabulary as single words. And if you must, try to teach single words in word groups, or word families.

Many adult students of English tell me they know a lot of English words, but are confused about putting them together to make a sentence or question. Drilling and practicing with words in chunks, or groups of words that are in a common order, should help familiarize students with this common order.

There is a corollary here for making chants, as well. When making a chant, grouping words together in ways that help students become familiar with common patterns will help them, too. An easy example that comes to mind is What color/What color/What color do you like? Students so often ask the question

What do you like color? 

that extra drilling and practice, both listening and speaking, of the correct word order can only help.

Grade: 5
Lesson: 6 (1 of 2)
Target: What do you want? Strawberries, please!
Materials: CD and player; Text; GTP cards for all students


Greeting- 2 minutes
Teacher to Students- Listen and Repeat (some or all)
Hello, Hi, Hey, Howdy, G’day, Good Morning, Hola, Aloha, Bon Jour, Bon Dia,Bon Journo, Ni Hao, Konnichiwa, Anyohaseyo, Sambaino, Kiola, Selamat Pagi (am) (pm-Siang), Shalom, Jambo, Asalamalekum, Zzdrastvet-yah, Namaste.

Janken 4’s- Warm-Up/Review/Conversation Skills Practice- 5 minutes
ALT/HRT: Janken and do the conversation first together, then with a few
students to practice/demonstrate.
Students: Each student Janken and Converse with 3 others in groups of 4
Blackboard:

• W) I like apples.
• L1) I like apples, too.
• L2) I don’t like apples.

Lets’s Listen 2- 10 minutes
Text- page 39.
CD- track 47. Repeats one time. Check answers the second time.
Ken- Soup, steak and pudding. Mai- Pizza, salad and juice.
Students- Listen to CD. Put a CIRCLE around the foods Ken orders, and a SQUARE around the foods that Mai orders.

Vocabulary Introduction Activity-Listen, Repeat and Point- 5 minutes
Text: page 40
Materials: 18 Picture Flashcards from text, or text pages 40
HRT: to ALT- ‘What do you want?’ SHOWING FLASHCARDS TO ALT 1-BY-1 but NOT to students AT FIRST. Show the flashcard to the students AFTER the ALT says the word so students can check themselves.
ALT: It’s a/an OO.
Students: Point to picture in text and repeat after ALT.

Song- to the melody of London Bridges- 5 minutes
Materials: Fruit flashcards (apple, kiwi, strawberry, banana, melon, lemon, grapes, cherry, peach, pineapple.
Blackboard: Post flashcards in the above order.
ALT/HRT: Lead singing: “Apple kiwi strawberry, banana melon, lemon
grapes, cherry peach, pineapple. I like everything. Except durian!"
Students: Sing along.

Chant- 5 minutes
Materials: fruit flashcards on blackboard.
Blackboard:

• What-What-What-do you want?
• Strawberries-Strawberries-Strawberries, please.
• Here you are.
• Thank you!

ALT: Lead chant
HRT: Show a fruit flashcard in response.
Students: Listen and Repeat first after HRT and ALT.

Activity- Get The Picture (GTP)- 10 minutes
Blackboard-

• L) What do you want?
• W) Banana, please.
• L1) Here you are. (give one BANANA card)
• L2) Sorry, no bananas! BYE!
• -RUN CORN LION GIRL 12 20-

ALT/HRT- Demonstrate activity- then ask students to explain in Japanese (to check their comprehension). Demo with a few students.
Students-Pairs Janken, Loser starts. If the other student has that card,
he/she gives ONE card. Students form new pairs and continue.

Wrap-Up- 3 minutes
(Present common mistakes to the whole class. Write the mistaken point on the blackboard, and ask if anybody can see the mistake.) Or-
HRT to Students, in Japanese:
-What did we talk about today?
-Were there some words you already knew?
-Did you learn any new words?
-What was fun or interesting?
-What was difficult?
-How can we make that easier next time?

Closing- 1 minute
Students: ‘Thank you! Good bye!’
Teachers: ‘You’re welcome! Good bye!’

eigonoto.com   copyright 2009 Elton Ersch

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EigoNoto.com copyright 2010 Elton Ersch

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We have been teaching the Eigo Noto lessons now for almost a year, 

and it’s time for some evaluation of progress to date, and some rethinking of goals and approaches for the new school year.

When I received requests recently from my Home Room Teachers (HRTs) for Eigo Noto lessons to prepare, I was struck by how the requests resembled exactly those that I receive from the Junior High school Japanese English Teachers (JTEs) that I team teach with: Lesson 8, pages 52-53, I study Japanese on Monday. 

This should not have been a surprise, given that most of the final activities in the Eigo Noto are English speaking activities. Nor for the fact that most, if not all, elementary school teachers’ experience with English study is a grammar- and/or target sentence-focused approach. In all other classes, teachers are also generally focused on productive outcomes (test scores) as well; students being able to speak the target phrase in the lesson would also seem a natural goal. Given these experiences and insights, you can review what the Mombusho stated goals are for the Eigo Noto, aka. International Studies, curriculum are here.


In the fall I listened to a podcast on the BBC program Forum in which educators discussed the differences of motivation and inspiration.  Considering their thoughts, my own interest that underlies learning to speak 3 foreign languages (Spanish, Indonesian and Japanese), and also the longer-term goals of the International Studies curriculum, I had the following thoughts and insights.

• Students should not learn to dislike English.
• All students should feel a sense of success in the final activity (see more on this).
• Motivation can be thought of as a shorter-term approach, to which end making English class fun would encourage students to participate in the immediate task at hand.
• One of the International Studies curriculum goals is nurturing life-long interest in foreign cultures and languages
• English, like any language, is the voice of culture. English is too often taught as an impersonal academic subject, and often without meaning or social context.

From these thoughts I concluded that there needs to be explicit culture points included in each lesson. Real foreign language media (not just English), especially audio and video, are readily available at little or no cost, are engaging, fun and interesting for students, and do much to give deeper cultural meaning to the language component of the lesson.
Look for more cultural content links in the future here at EigoNoto.com.

Also, being able to share experiences of travel abroad, of other cultures, peoples and languages, is an immediate way that we as teachers can share our own enthusiasm with learning language and culture. The kids eyes kept popping out of their heads in a recent class as I kept drawing colorful lines upon lines of the many different things I found to be on Australian hamburgers (meat patty, cheese, fried egg, grilled pineapple, tomato, bacon, pickled beetroot, onion, shredded carrots, lettuce...).

One of my greatest learning experiences while traveling or living abroad has been via comparative analysis. Too many times there have been things in front of my eyes, or in my head, that I couldn’t understand. So my first response was to go back mentally to something similar I did understand- my home culture. And by looking more deeply at my own culture I was able to gain insight into the foreign culture around me.

Such a learning experience is just what the foreign language critics in Japan need to have, and want to see- how learning a foreign language deepens and develops our understanding of our own home culture vis-a-vis that of the foreign language and culture.

Facilitating such a learning experience in the classroom is quite simple, really:
When an aspect of foreign culture is presented to the class, simply asking students ‘What is similar, or different, to your culture, or the Japanese way of doing this?’, and giving help as needed (further questions are the best approach) to help students deepen their probe.

Another approach would be to model the thinking process, something like, ‘When I saw this, I didn’t know what to think. Then I thought about my own culture in New Zealand. In this situation we usually....’ And from there go on to contrast the differences in the two cultures, and note the similarities.

As an English Teacher teaching the International Studies curriculum it is easy for me do things my usual way. Many of the language activities here at EigoNoto.com were developed for my Junior High School English classes.

But I need to do better to keep in mind that students in the Eigo Noto lessons need to have a longer-term seed planted in them- an interest and curiosity in foreign cultures and language, and in their own culture and language, that is deep enough to inspire a life-long learning adventure.

EigoNoto.com copyright 2010 Elton Ersch

Many of the EigoNoto.com activities are much more fun for the students if there is an easy way for them to mark points. This is especially true for the Maru-Batsu (O/X) Game. I have been suggesting an Australian Points Map, but have discovered a simpler way...

There are little marching teachers and children at the bottoms of the pages in the Eigo Noto. 

Using these as a way for students to keep points is very convenient- starting from the first page of each lesson, students circle one marching figure for each point earned in an activity. Then for each new lesson, students begin scoring points anew on the first page of the next lesson.
A reminder about giving points- give larger amounts of points for games of luck (those that are Janken/RPS-based, for example), and smaller amounts of points for activities that are skill-based. Giving points like this will help lower-level students to earn as many points as their higher-skilled peers.

EigoNoto.com copyright 2010 Elton Ersch

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Grade: 5
Lesson: 9 (1 of ?)
Target: What would you like? Juice, please.
Materials: CD & player; Text; Colored pens/pencils; Get The Picture prints


Greeting- 5 minutes
Teacher to Students- Listen & Repeat (some or all)
Hello, Hi, Hey, Howdy, G’day, Good Morning, Hola, Aloha, Bon Jour, Bon Dia, Bon Journo, Ni Hao, Konnichiwa, Anyohaseyo, Sambaino, Kiola, Selamat Pagi (am) (pm-Siang), Shalom, Jambo, Asalamalekum, Zzdrastvet-yah, Namaste.

Interactive Introduction- teachers’ speeches- 5 minutes
Blackboard- 1 space for each word in speech.
ALT/HRT- ALT give a speech, and write words into spaces that students tell. Then, HRT do Repeat and Change the Pattern Speaking.
(1 word/1 line) Hello.
(4) My name is Elton.
(10) I eat yogurt, fruit, toast and jam in the morning.
(2) Thank you.
Students- Listen, tell the words you hear. Last, do Repeat and Change the Pattern Speaking in a normal or small voice.

Let’s Listen- 8 minutes
EigoNoto- page 57
CD- track 62-63
HRT/ALT- Introduce activity, check students’ answers.
Students- Listen to CD, and guess/write the country names.
(1-Korea; 2-America; 3-Japan; 4-France)

Activity- Draw Pictures- 10 minutes
EigoNoto- page 56
HRT- Introduce activity.
Students- Draw pictures of the foods you eat for breakfast.

Janken 4’s- Warm-Up/Review/Conversation Skills Practice- 5 minutes
ALT/HRT: Janken and do the conversation first together, then with a few students to practice/demonstrate. Discuss the usage of have for the meaning of eat (it is also used for I have a dog, I have a brother, I have a pen.). Also check if students have any questions about the names of foods in English before beginning. Note: In English we DON'T drink soup, we EAT soup (in Japanese, we DRINK soup, not EAT).
Students: Use pictures of your breakfast foods from last Activity.
Each student Janken and Converse with 3 others in groups of 4.
Blackboard:     
W) I eat (have) miso soup, rice and fish (in the morning).
L) I eat (have) fruit, toast and milk (in the morning).

Chant- What would you like?- 5 minutes
EigoNoto- pages 56-7, food pictures in border.
Blackboard-
What clap 2X What would you like? clap-clap
Juice clap 2X  Juice, please. clap-clap
ALT/HRT- Lead chanting and singing
Students- Chant/sing along. Choose a student with dice to choose foods from border of pages 56-7.

Get The Picture- GTP- 10 minutes
Materals- Get The Picture prints
Blackboard-
W) OO, please.
L1) OK. / Here you are.
L2) I don’t have OO./Sorry, no OO.
ALT/HRT- Introduce activity. Demonstrate once together.
Stud ents- All standing, make pairs, play Janken, winner starts. Student withmost cards is the winner.

Wrap-Up- 3 minutes
(Present common mistakes to the whole class. Write the mistaken point on the blackboard, and ask if anybody can see the mistake.) Or-
HRT to Students, in Japanese:
-What did we talk about today? 
-Were there some words you already knew?
-Did you learn any new words?
-What was fun or interesting?
-What was difficult?
-How can we make that easier next time?

Closing- 1 minute
Students: ‘Thank you! Good bye!’
Teachers: ‘You’re welcome! Good bye!’

EigoNoto.com copyright 2010 Elton Ersch

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Grade: 6
Lesson: 6 (1 of 1)
Target: I want to go to Italy!
Materials: CD & player; Text


Greeting- 2 minutes
Teacher to Students- Listen & Repeat (some or all)
Hello, Hi, Hey, Howdy, G’day, Good Morning, Hola, Aloha, Bon Jour, Bon Dia, Bon Journo, Ni Hao, Konnichiwa, Anyohaseyo, Sambaino, Kiola, Selamat Pagi (am) (pm-Siang), Shalom, Jambo, Asalamalekum, Zzdrastvet-yah, Namaste.

Janken 4’s- Warm-Up/Review/Conversation Skills Practice- 5 minutes
ALT/HRT: Janken and do the conversation first together, then with a few students to practice/demonstrate.
Students: Each student Janken and Converse with 3 others in groups of 4
Blackboard:   
W) I like soccer/pizza/green.
L1) I like soccer, too.
L2) I don’t like soccer.

Interactive Introduction- Teachers’ speeches- 10 minutes
Blackboard- spaces for each word in the speech, one sentence per line. Later, write HRT’s speech as it is given. (Save ALT’s speech for later.)
Speech-
(1 line) Hi.
(4) My name is Elton.
(3) I like pizza.
(3) I play soccer.
(5) I want to eat pizza.
(6) I want to see pro soccer.
(6) I want to go to Italy.
ALT- Give speech to students in steps:
1- After speaking the first time, ask students to tell WORDS they heard.
Write them in the spaces on the blackboard.
2- After speaking again, ask students what SENTENCES/LINES they heard. Write these in the spaces.
3- Speak again, line-by-line. Ask students for MEANING in Japanese.
4- Repeat steps 2 and 3 if needed.
5- After all words are complete on the blackboard, say speech one last time. Next- say speech one line at a time, letting HRT say their part after each line.
HRT- HRT give speech, Repeating and Changing the Pattern, one line at a time after ALT.
Students- Listen to teachers’ speeches and respond to teachers’ requests.

Let’s Listen 2- 8 minutes
Text- page 39
CD- track 48. Ken: Egypt; likes history; wants to see pyramids, Sphinx, camels in the desert. Ann: Japan; likes kimonos and sushi; wants to see Mt. Fuji. Mai: Italy; likes pizza, spaghetti, plays soccer. Ryo: Australia; likes animals, koalas and kangaroos, wants to see beautiful beaches.
ALT/HRT- Play the CD. Check the answers afterwards.
Students- Listen to the CD, write answers in text, check answers with seat partners, tell answers to teachers for checking.

Chant- I Want To Go To Italy- 10 minutes
Blackboard-
I want to clap 2X
I want to go to Italy. clap-clap
I want to  
eat pizza. clap-clap
play soccer. clap-clap
see pro soccer. clap-clap-clap

Teachers’ Speeches, again- Listen and Repeat the Pattern- 10 minutes
Blackboard- ALT’s speech from before.
ALT- Say speech in front of class. Next, again with HRT, saying one line at a time, waiting each time for HRT to say that line again, changing 1 or 2 words.  Then, do the Listen and Repeat the Pattern activity with the whole class. Students all respond in a very quiet voice.
Last, do the activity in this pattern with volunteer students.
Students- Listen, then later say own speech in a quiet voice after ALT.
Volunteer student says speech line-by-line with ALT.
HRT- Do activity with ALT and class.

Wrap-Up - 3 minutes
(Present common mistakes to the whole class. Write the mistaken point on the blackboard, and ask if anybody can see the mistake.) Or-
HRT to Students, in Japanese:
-What did we talk about today? 
-Were there some words you already knew?
-Did you learn any new words?
-What was fun or interesting?
-What was difficult?
-How can we make that easier next time?

Closing- 1 minute
Students: ‘Thank you! Good bye!’
Teachers: ‘You’re welcome! Good bye!’

eigonoto.com copyright 2010 Elton Ersch

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