2009年9月25日金曜日

Memo for my Theses 2

About English classes at Junior high and high schools in Japan


Most of students study English for their exams such as term exams of schools and entrance exams for high schools and universities. These exams do not have speaking test but writing, reading, and listening tests. Therefore, they usually do not speak English at their schools.





About English classes at university


English major--- Students learn basic skills to write, read, speak, and listen to English. (In addition to them, they study foreign culture, history, communication, and so on. However, I'd like to focus on only basic skills for this theses.) Japanese students learn these basic skills in separeted calsses, which means they learn how to write English in writing class, read it in reading class, speak it in speaking class, and listen to it in listening class.



Non English major--- Some of them have only writing and reading class. Most of them do not have speaking class. (*get more information)

2009年9月24日木曜日

Memo for My Theses

Topic: Difference between English classes in Japan and Japanese classes at MSU, Montana State University

I've learned English for almost 10 years and I can communicate with other people in English now even though my English is not perfect. However, I have not been able to speak English for my first 7 years since I started studying English. I knew how to write and read English but I was too shy to speak English. There are many Japanese who do not speak English even though they have learned it for a long time as well as I used to. I am wondering why it happends.

I know some foreign people who speak Japanese. I sometimes asked them how long they have learned Japanese. Their answer often surprised me because they have just learned Japanese for 2 or 3 years.

Japanese have learned English since they were junior high school students but most of them cannot speak English. On the other hand, non native Japanese speakers have learned Japanese for a only couple of years but they speak Japanese.

Then, I'd like to research this topic, difference between English classes in Japan and Japanese classes at MSU, for my theses.

I was a TA of Japanese classes at MSU for a half year. In these classes, students just started studying Japanese and they were not able to speak Japanese, of course. However, the Japanese teacher always asked them to speak Japanese. For example, they often had pair work for conversation and sometimes had to have quick presentation in front of other students. I think it was helpful to improve their Japanese!!

On the other hand, Japanese students usually do not speak English at junior high and high school. They have many text books to learn how to write and read English.

to be continued...