Eigo note

[jessen100]

Okay, so numerous threads ago, i remember there being a thread about eigo note, and it got mostly negative response.

However, sive ive been using it (my school would seem to have it no other way), it seems that it is integrated pretty well, and the kids do enjoy it, from what i have used of it so far, i dont think its a bad textbook at all. It makes my job way easier as well.

Obviously there is a huge problem when it comes to ALTs using it, which is that, the instructors manual is only in Japanese, and if you cant read japanese you will miss nearly all of the content. For me when i looked through the textbook itself I really had no idea what to to with it, but after actually taking the time to read the manual, i found that its pretty legit.

Is there anywhere where its translated already?
I can read it fine, but I imagine there are many people who cant.

[crustpunker]

Genki English has this translated.
Is this the entire manual?

http://genkienglish.net/eigonote.htm

I am super jealous that you have no problem reading it. My kanji ability is horrid. How on earth did you get so got at Japanese?

[jessen100]

that looks like none of the manual to me, granted i havent read the whole manual, its no where near the 100 page book which is the manual. The counting lesson in the 6th graders book isnt even there. maybe i was looking in the wrong palce?

japanese was my major in college, then i came here right away.
also i watched a whole bunch of japanese dramas on crunchyroll.com when i was in the US as well.

[Shamisen]

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I want to be able to read too!!!!!!!!

Although Im not too bad really. After 3 years Im getting used to the kanji in lesson plans which are pretty much the same over and over
"divide into ４　groups　４文に分ける
Practice pronounciation 発音を練習する"
etc
Honestly I dont even read in Japanese, I look at the symbols and go directly to English! Is that bad?

But yeah, I think the eigo note teacher's manual is quite good. It seems to be pretty much the same stuff Ive been doing these few years plus some variations.

[bum1]

I read in English from kanji symbols too. I remember kanji in English. It's better than nothing but it's far from proper considering how many ways kanji are read.

[jessen100]

yea i did taht a lot too, but the problem is that youcant look them up or say them. but i supposed that was apparent enought without writing that.

if i have time on monday ill translate one of the lesson plans as its written in the manual, to a greater extent than the chapter title.

[Shamisen]

Well that would be cool. I guess I could translate a page too, but it would take some time. Lets all translate a few pages then sell it online to all ALTs across japan :) crowd-sourcing

[Shamisen]

Heres the rough translation draft I did during my no lesson times.
What do you think?
I like the contents personally. What a good way to bring the meaning of English to the kids!

click the download for the page layout and headings.

Translation of:
********************************************************
EIGO NOTE TEACHER'S MANUAL pg 28
2nd hour of Lesson 2 (numbers and alphabet)

*****START TRANSLATION*************************

Last hour we did Alphabet Capital letters and Lower Case letters. This hour, we focus on the lower case letters and also numbers above 21. To learn numbers above 21, we are not going to have them memorize the way to say numbers, but instead, during a listening activity, show them some meaningful numbers. Lets teach the students that numbers usually stand for something and have various meanings beyond simple math. If we show them this, they will be motivated to study further.

In 2006, the total number of countries in the world was counted at 192. Of those, 54 have English as a national language or a commonly spoken one. Computers and the internet also use almost entirely English. With this in mind, for the society from today onwards, the significance of English is huge. Students should comprehend this. To learn English is to learn the world language. That said, we want to introduce the activity.

AIM
To practice the lower case letters , as well as numbers 21 – 100.
Also, to let them know why, of all foreign languages, we chose English to study.

CONTENTS
a-z lower case alphabet letters
21 – 100 and the number 192


SONG
THIRTY, FORTY pg 11
Same song as last lesson


TEACHERS SENTENCES (EXAMPLES)
Look at the cards.
What number is this?
Lets sing together.
Sing in a loud voice.

ACTIVITY 1
(Lets say numbers 1 – 100)

1. Point to a student and let them say 1
2. (some japanese I cant read)

TEACHERS SENTENCES (EXAMPLES)
First I will point to a student.
The student will say “one”.
Then I will point to another student, and that student will say “two”.
Can we count to 100?
Its OK to make mistakes. <== LOOK AT THIS!!!!!!! its in the teachers manual!!
Help each other.

**************end translation****************

[mangakk]

Okay, so numerous threads ago, i remember there being a thread about eigo note, and it got mostly negative response.

However, sive ive been using it (my school would seem to have it no other way), it seems that it is integrated pretty well, and the kids do enjoy it, from what i have used of it so far, i dont think its a bad textbook at all. It makes my job way easier as well.

Obviously there is a huge problem when it comes to ALTs using it, which is that, the instructors manual is only in Japanese, and if you cant read japanese you will miss nearly all of the content. For me when i looked through the textbook itself I really had no idea what to to with it, but after actually taking the time to read the manual, i found that its pretty legit.

Is there anywhere where its translated already?
I can read it fine, but I imagine there are many people who cant.

Lucky you, I am struggling with the Teachers Manual.
I was wondering if you got any interesting activity for lesson 3 grade 5. I have been thinking of an "I like " game, but can't really come up with anything.

[jessen100]

I did lesson 3 for grade 5 today actually, and it was pretty good. The version of eigo note i have has nothing to do with "i like", in this lesson though.

this is what i did today, basically based on the eigo note manual. prettymuch the same as the instructions i think but in first person.

**************************
- Greeting


*********
- Let's Play
*********
- I asked them what all the parts of jankenpon are, i asked them in english and they told me the japanese, (gun, chokki, pa), then told them that those were rock scissors paper, respectively.

- Since we do it 1,2,3 in english we had a tournament where winners stay standing, and loers sit back down. winners stay until there is only 1, and when the winner is decided, I dramatically marked them the CHAMPION!

- Next we listened to the CD, which has English, Korean, and Chinese versions of janken on it. since we had just done english, we skipped it, then we listened korean and Chinese. After the we repeated the game in korean and chinese.

**theres another version written in the book (which i cant read completely) but i believe it says, to hand them out cards and the losers of the janken, pass a card to the winner, and then various activities can be done this way as well.

***********
- Let's Listen
***********
- Next we listened to the various 1-10's of the different languages, while doing page 17. pretty straightforward.
after listening i asked them where they count like this/what language it is.

***********
- Let's Sing
***********
- I used cards with 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, on each of them, and arranged them in order on the board, (you could just write them as well) while we sang the "Ten Steps" song. and followed the motions (in their book/on the poster which was on the board)
After they got used to being able to sing the song, take one, or some of the numbers down, and sing it on karaoke version while leaving out the numbers that arent written/hung up.
remind them at the beginning of the song that if they dont sing that the game wont work.

thats all
*************
- End greeting
*************

[mangakk]

[quote="jessen100"]I did lesson 3 for grade 5 today actually, and it was pretty good. The version of eigo note i have has nothing to do with "i like", in this lesson though.

this is what i did today, basically based on the eigo note manual. prettymuch the same as the instructions i think but in first person.

**************************
My Bad Jessen. Sorry I mis quoted the lesson, it should be lesson 4 Grade 5. "I like apples" I guess our text books are the same but I was careless. thanks though.

[jessen100]

ok heres that then,

Lesson 4, hour 1 of 4, for 5th grade.

**************
Greeting 5 min. (idk how this can take 5 min)
**************

******************
-Introduction- 10 min.
******************

things to prepare -
pictures/flashcards of , food, animals, sports, and things you like and dislike

-procedure-

1 draw a heart and a broken heart on the board next to each other.
while showing pictures introduce thing you like and things you dislike. you can use the picture cards on eigo note page 24 as well.
2 show the studens a picture and ask "whats this" and identify it in english.
say "i like~~" in english, then post the picture in the middle of the the non broken heart.
say "i dont like~~" in english then post the picture in the middle of the broken heart
3 after establishing the meaning in japanese, ask several students individually, "do you like ~~" while having them asnwer "Yes", or "No"

*******************************
Let's Listen, textbook Pg. 24. 10 min.
*******************************

Listen to the CD and connect the dots via who likes what . prepare CD section 24, and 25 (idk whats with the silly ass number system on these CDs)

-procedure-
1 everyone opends their books to page 24. The teacher posts the 10 flashcards on the board( for now the 5 cards that are things). As you point to each card asking "whats this?" the students answer in japanese, and the teacher says the english word.
2 Post the 5 cards of people and go over their names, then listen to the CDand show that you are to connect the lides between those people and what they like.
3 the students listen to the CD and work out page 24.
4 listen to the CD again and check the answers

*necessary expressions for the activity*
draw a line (from ichiro to the banana)


********************
Let's Play Pg. 25 10 min
********************
Key word game

pay attention to the differences in the sound of English and gai-lai-go, and work in pairs.

-procedure-
1 the teacher explains how to play "key word game"
-the students sit facing each other, with an eraser set in between them
-the teacher chosses a picture from page 25 of the textbook to be the keyword, then say and repeat it. only when the teacher says the keyword, the students are able to silently take the eraser.
- when the students are told a word other than the keyword, the repeat that word and clap their hands twice.
- progress while choosing words other than the keyword at random. When the teacher says the keyword the students silently take the eraser. the students who takes it the fastest, gets 1 point.
-progress so the students dont get bored, while changing partners.

*********************
Let's Chant pg. 25, 5 min.
*********************
Do you like apples?

1 say it in rythem
2 once they get used to sayin it, try to change the words up a little bit while continuing to use the picture cards.

-procedure-
1 while looking at page 25 of the textbook, listen to the CD and follow along with your finger.
2 chant along with the CD

*necessary expressions for the activity*
Speak louder, speak in a loud voice

***********
End Greetings
***********





something like that

[Shamisen]

These are really helpful Jessen100! thanks!

[mangakk]

Thanks for the help. I will try to implement your idea, but first it has to get through 打ち会わせ.

[hokkaido1]

Here are all the lesson plans in English!

of course you don't need to follow them word for word, but if your school asks you for a plan and you don't have any time or can't understand the Japanese just base your lesson on these

you will find the lessons in "word" format about half way down the page
if you click the blue
〔 Wordファイルダウンロード 〕

you should get all the lessons for that book, or you can download them individually near the bottom of the page on the right

Book one
http://www.kairyudo.co.jp/07_goods/460839/index.htm

Book Two
http://www.kairyudo.co.jp/07_goods/460849/index.htm

[jessen100]

nice

[Otaku]

I second that...nice find. However, I don't think those hold a candle the 100+ page manuals in Japanese.

I'm having a hard time getting my mind around how much effort is put into translating things into Japanese for our J-counterparts: Englipedia's ES section, Genki English, Planet Eigo, JET Manual, etc. It can't be expected that J-teachers speak English; this is realized, hence all the effort to translate. Why can some of that curtesy be thrown back in our direction, especially since the stuff is directly related to the ALT's job?

Unless, MEXT knows the Eigo Noto sucks and it needs to get cleaned up and doesn't want to bother translating it until they get all the kinks out of the book. However, I would argue that the ALTs could contribute some great ideas. Unless, MEXT doesn't want to give ALTs a chance to contribute. Maybe, cuz' they aren't Japanese.

My conspiracy theories could keep going but I've got to prep for class...

[jessen100]

It can't be expected that J-teachers speak English.

The people concerned with this are teaching English arent they?
How does this make sense?

[Otaku]

It can't be expected that J-teachers speak English.

The people concerned with this are teaching English arent they?
How does this make sense?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are talking about HRTs, right? This complicated and glorified acronym can be reduced to "elementary school teacher". I would dare say 95% of HRTs don't want to teach English because they aren't confident in their English skills. Not to dog on the HRTs too much, but the ironic thing is that most of these HRTs probably know more about the English language than they do about some of the other subjects they teach. I've met some pretty moronic HRTs over the years...

Anyways, back to the question you asked, Jessen, yes the HRTs are will be teaching English, but かんけいない. There is no relationship between teaching a subject and actually using what you're teaching in a practical sense. For a perfect example of this, simply look at how many miscommunications there are at the JHS level where J-teachers are supposed to have a firmer control of the language but you still look blankly at them because you either can't understand their thick katakana accent or the meaning of what they are saying. Here's another example of miscommunication from an ALT who sent me a picture of a recent 'English communication' from her HRT...

Okay, that was a cheap shot...

This is the way I see it, MEXT sits on their throne and dictates to these ES J-teachers already teaching at the ES level that they are going to be teaching another subject, "international communication" (a.k.a. English), in a year's time. This by no way automatically means the HRTs know or will know English, much less be able to teach the subject. If anything, I think this move on MEXT's part solidifies NOVAs position in the Eikaiwa market because I would imagine that a lot of teachers are going to start getting some refresher Eikaiwa classes in before they have to officially start teaching English in their ES classes.

[mangakk]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are talking about HRTs, right? This complicated and glorified acronym can be reduced to "elementary school teacher". I would dare say 95% of HRTs don't want to teach English because they aren't confident in their English skills. Not to dog on the HRTs too much, but the ironic thing is that most of these HRTs probably know more about the English language than they do about some of the other subjects they teach. I've met some pretty moronic HRTs over the years...


This is the way I see it, MEXT sits on their throne and dictates to these ES J-teachers already teaching at the ES level that they are going to be teaching another subject, "international communication" (a.k.a. English), in a year's time. This by no way automatically means the HRTs know or will know English, much less be able to teach the subject. If anything, I think this move on MEXT's part solidifies NOVAs position in the Eikaiwa market because I would imagine that a lot of teachers are going to start getting some refresher Eikaiwa classes in before they have to officially start teaching English in their ES classes.

Hmmm......
The JTE's at my school are good with their grammer and are more than decent in normal conversation, the only problem I have is their katakana english and their tendency to eat their words (sometimes).

[jessen100]

ok i realize that many of them are not confident in english, and might not be able to do it well, but the way i see it, they should get their curriculum planned in english as well, for the sake of improving their english, as to better the english that they teach, rather than giving them all japanese directions.
(best run on sentence ive ever written, full of commas)

If i was going to have to teach japanese in the US, i would expect my teachers workbook to be in japanese.

i realize thats not how its going to be, but thats the way it should be as i see it, and thats the way i think we should all strive to make it.
whether or not the HRT can speak english is their own problem.

so what i say, is that it can and must be expected that J-teachers speak English. realistic or not.

[Otaku]

...in a perfect world that has a perfect education system, I can see this happening.

However, I think it highly unfair for a teacher who is teaching the basics of a subject to be fluent in that subject. Would you expect a history teacher to know EVERYTHING about history, or a math teacher who teaches ES math to know all about calculus? I would imagine not...

Now, I can't stress this enough, for the purpose of this thread and to keep things on topic, we are not talking about JHS/HS English teachers, we are talking about ES HRTs.

I don't think it would be fair for a ES school teacher to be fluent in English to the point they could read a 100+ page manual in English. I think having the manual in Japanese is fair, but at the point the English classes are going to be team-taught with ALTs, in order not to leave the ALTs in the dark, the manual should also have an English translation.

That being said, this is the same problem that currently happening in JHS/HS. The other day, I was asking my JTE a grammar question and she pulled out a huge manual for the New Horizon series that thoroughly laid out the entire textbook. Of course, the entire manual was in Japanese. I didn't know a manual even existed up to that point. Was there an English version of that manual? Not that I know of...

[jessen100]

:

I don't think it would be fair for a ES school teacher to be fluent in English to the point they could read a 100+ page manual in English.

i do. most of the words that come up in said manual are going to be quite repetetive. It should be written in easy english, but not japanese i think.

[Otaku]

It is an interesting argument, of which I can both sides.

[Paul]

It is an interesting argument, of which I can both sides.

I agree with you here Otaku. I can see the pros and cons as well, yet one thing that I think needs to be pointed out here is that the current ES teachers have no training nor education in teaching English. Other than some seminars or extra courses that their schools or education offices MAY provide.

Many ES teachers, depending upon their age as well, I have seen are very leery about having to teach English as a graded subject mostly because they dont feel qualified to teach the subject.

[Otaku]

To play devil's advocate though, the same argument could be made for ALTs working in ES. They don't have any formal training or usually nil experience, and yet they are usually given complete control of the class.

The only thing that the ALT has over the HRT is the experience they've gained on-the-job and being fluent in English. However, experience teaching over here will tell you it takes a bit more than being fluent to be able to effectively teach. What the HRT has over the ALT is knowing the classroom environment of the students and being able to effectively slice through any communcational barrier with the students.

...and then all of this leads right back to team-teaching and one more argument for the need of a bi-lingual manual. damnit, going in circles here!

Additionally, I believe the Eigo Noto is being designed just like pretty much every other educational material in this country, where the zombie teacher really doesn't need to know anything about teaching the subject because each lesson will have a step-by-step guide of what to do and what to say, all the way down to "hello/bye-bye class". And, if English does turn into a graded subject, there will be a guide book for that, too.

Not trying to being negative, just realistic...

[/devils_advocate]

[Paul]

In response to the devil

As you know though the ALT is not expected to teach math, Japanese, social studies, morals, art, or gym classes.

I think that one of the reasons the manual is not bilingual is purely because MEXT has or is envisioning that ALT's will become outdated and unnecessary in the ES schools. HRT's are expected to be the one's that need to teach the material and MEXT doesn't want to create the never ending financial drain that doesn't real show a result when it comes to test scores in JHS called ALT's.

In my opinion I dont think that there is an expectation on too many peoples parts that ALT's are going to be teaching the material from the Eigo Note in ES.

Being curious about what is inside the book is one thing, having a practical reason for having to take the time and money to translate it is another.

[Otaku]

I think that one of the reasons the manual is not bilingual is purely because MEXT has or is envisioning that ALT's will become outdated and unnecessary in the ES schools. HRT's are expected to be the one's that need to teach the material and MEXT doesn't want to create the never ending financial drain that doesn't real show a result when it comes to test scores in JHS called ALT's.

Me thinks so, too.