‘Teaching Subjects in English’ as an Effective Method to Familiarize Unmotivated University Students with Practical Use of English
Shigetoshi Mori, Japan
Shigetoshi Mori is a professor at Sendai University (Japan), where he teaches English. His current research interests include intercultural communication and CLIL.
E-mail: sg-mori@sendai-u.ac.jp
Menu
Abstract
Introduction
The current situation of English teaching at secondary schools
The ‘popularization’ of universities
Why ‘teach subjects in English’ at university?
Adjusting TSE to our target students
Conclusion
Endnotes
It is widely accepted that a large number of Japanese university students are not good at using English practically. Focusing particular attention on these students, this paper discusses how to familiarize them with the practical use of English. In this paper, we show that ‘teaching subjects in English’ is the most desirable/effective teaching method for our target students.
The demand to improve Japanese students’ skill in using English practically, which is indispensable in this globalized world, became a formal purpose of English education in Japan when the Ministry of Education revised its guidelines for English teaching in lower and upper secondary schools in 1989 and 1990. Despite this revision, the students’ skill in using English practically has not necessarily developed as expected. This results in producing a large number of graduates from upper secondary schools who are quite unfamiliar with the practical use of English, and since not a small percentage of these students are matriculated at many universities (for the reason mentioned below), it has become urgent for English teachers at the universities in question to develop an effective ‘remedy’ for re-teaching these students practical English usage. Whatever teaching method is tried, however, we must start our attempt by identifying factors which are causing the current situation. In our view, we can single out two primary causes: one is the lack of opportunities for students at secondary schools to practice using practical English and the other is the ‘popularization’ of universities. In the following chapters, we will examine these issues and show why ‘teaching subjects in English’ can be actually effective for our purpose.
Every elementary school has been obliged to teach English as a compulsory subject to pupils of 5th and 6th grades (10 and 11 years old, respectively) since 2011, and the time allocated to English learning is 52.5 hours (about 1.3% of total learning hours). English is also compulsory in lower secondary schools, and the time assigned to it is 350 hours (about 13.8% of all learning hours). In the case of upper secondary schools (where English is not formally compulsory), the maximum number of credits in English is 21, which means 612.5 hours (1 credit is 1,750 minutes). Hence, if a current student at an upper secondary school studied English for the maximum number of learning hours, s/he would learn it for 962.5 hours in total (if they did not learn English in an elementary school). Here, an issue to be considered comes up, i.e. whether or not this learning time is enough to familiarize Japanese children with the practical use of English. This figure, compared with the observation that it takes approximately 1,500 hours at least for an average Japanese to attain, for example, the B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference (needless to say that they must be highly motivated and study intensively), shows that a Japanese student is deficient in time spent acquiring practical English usage skills. Furthermore, we must remember that 962.5 hours is the accumulated time for six years (from 13 to 18 years old), which means about 3.1 hours a week; in addition, we must also remember that 962.5 is the maximum number of learning hours. Compulsory credits in English are in reality rather different among upper secondary schools according to the educational purpose of each school; there is no small number of schools where only nine credits in English (262.5 hours for three years) are compulsory. This indicates that not a small percentage of students are severely deficient in time spent learning English itself, let alone the practical use of English. In addition to the deficiency in learning time, what makes matters worse is that, except for a small number of ‘pilot’ schools where ‘English teaching/learning in English’ or ‘discussion/presentation in English’ are tried, a huge proportion of English lessons are devoted to studying or reading comprehension. This trend is much more remarkable in schools where a large percentage of students wish to go to ‘prestigious’ universities: English lessons are overwhelmingly devoted to an exam-oriented English. Thus, although cultivating skill in using English practically is an officially stated goal, English education at secondary schools in Japan has not achieved its purpose.
In addition to the issue just mentioned above, the ‘popularization’ of universities has made matters worse. According to Martin Trow, universities pass into the stage of ‘popularization’ when more than 15% of the eighteen-year-old population is enrolled in universities. This phenomenon happened in the 1960s in Japan and the percentage as of 2012 is around 53%. The popularization of universities undoubtedly has some influence on their education; in Japan, it has brought about a grave problem because of the following factors: a sharp reduction in the number of students wishing to go to universities and the amazing increase of universities. In 1992, the number of students who wished to go to universities was around 1,820,000 and the number of universities was 523 (public universities: 139, private ones: 384). In 2012, the former sharply decreased by two-thirds to the 600,000 range and the latter increased by about 1.5 times to 783 (public universities: 178, private ones: 605). This has caused the undesirable situation that, except for ‘prestigious’ universities (whether public or private ones), many universities, especially ‘minor’ private ones, are forced for financial reasons to matriculate quite a lot of students who may well not meet ‘admission policy’ in terms of academic competence. 1 As a result, the universities in question face an abnormal situation in that the majority of their freshmen is comprised of these students and the universities are forced to channel much energy into ‘remedying’ their academic competence. That is, the popularization of universities in Japan has caused a large stratum of students to whom a ‘regular’ class at a university level hardly works. 2 For English teachers, this means that they are confronted with a methodologically tough problem: how to teach the practical use of English to quite a large number of students whose English level is most likely quite low.
The English curriculum at lower and upper secondary schools is rigidly schemed by the guidelines of the Ministry of Education in Japan. This means that it is realistically quite difficult for the secondary schools to independently reorganize some parts of the curriculum to spare more time for practicing the practical use of English in particular. In addition, as the curriculum of other subjects is also rigidly schemed by the Ministry, it is impossible for these subjects to give up some of their classes for this purpose. To our regret, CLIL-type teaching/learning has not been adopted under the current system of public education in Japan, so students have no opportunity to experience practical English usage in lessons of other subjects. We must, therefore, ask for help from other educational institutes. In our view, it is the universities that are a strong candidate because, unlike lower and upper secondary schools, universities are not under rigid restrictions by the Ministry, except for the teaching hours for credits. It follows that English teachers at universities, if they wish, can organize classes for improving students’ skill in using English practically.
It is not easy, however, to manage this type of class effectively for our target students because they are quite likely to have strong feelings of dislike for English itself. We could say that they had bitter experiences, such as failing in English at previous schools and those experiences planted an aversion to English deeply in their minds. For them, ‘learning English’ is nothing but a millstone around their necks. It is regrettable that there are a great many students who have already had such bitter experiences with the subject, even during lower secondary school, that it becomes the last class they want to take. This fact requires us to develop an actually effective approach to English teaching/learning for these students. We must start with an understanding that since our target students’ attitude to English is most likely to be negative, any approach must be organized to lessen as much as possible this feeling. Given that a person’s dislike towards something becomes psychologically lessened when his/her attention is shifted to other things, we can expect that the loathing for English in our target students could be weakened by shifting their attention away from ‘studying English.’ That is, we should change the topic for learning from English to other subjects. We can possibly expect this type of class to create a stress-free environment for learning that could free our target students from the inevitable strain resulting from being forced to learn English. This is why we basically consider ‘teaching subjects in English’ (hereinafter, TSE) to be quite effective for our target students.
There are universities in Japan where TSE has been adopted in classes for major subjects as well as English classes. This type of class, however, is suited to highly motivated students whose English level is fully developed enough to understand a lesson conducted in English (hereinafter, hard-TSE). For them, an instruction in English hardly hinders their understanding of the lesson topic. In contrast, as our target students’ English level is most probably inadequate, and they are rarely familiar with instructions given in English, hard-TSE cannot be the model for what we intend here. We must modify hard-TSE for the level of our target students―hereinafter, soft-TSE.
What we must consider first of all when we design soft-TSE is how to make lessons as understandable as possible. In hard-TSE, a student generally learns a new topic as in a regular class conducted in the mother language. This could be overwhelmingly difficult for our target students because they are faced with the challenging intellectual activity of understanding unknown things through unfamiliar verbal instructions in English. We can possibly reduce the difficulty caused by the latter to some extent by adjusting English expressions to our target students’ level, but it is undeniable that instructions in English still prevent their understanding. We must, therefore, find some way to make soft-TSE more understandable. TSE consists of two components―a topic for learning and instructions in the target language. As to the latter, we have taken means to adjust it to our target students’ level. So, the only variable left is the topic for learning. In general students, the more familiar the topic, the more positive their attitude to learning becomes, which can be greatly expected to make lessons more acceptable. The same is the case with our target students; that is, the familiarity of the learning topic should make soft-TSE more acceptable. Therefore, in our view the most appropriate topics for our target students are those they have learnt formerly, because the previously acquired knowledge can fully compensate for their possibly ‘mottled’ understanding caused by the intervention of English even if it is adjusted to their level. Let me give a case: soft-TSE for obesity. Our target students have learnt obesity from a subject teacher and they have knowledge of BMI (body mass index) and the complications it causes. They can guess that the language teacher is talking about the evaluation of BMI, even from a patchy understanding of his/her expressions, such as ‘BMI…measured by…weight…height’ (‘BMI is measured by the ratio of weight to height.’), or risks brought about by obesity from ‘too much fat…is…cause of…diabetes…hypertension…hyperlipidemia’ (‘too much fat intake is a major cause of complications such as diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia’). Here, a concern may be that the language teacher should train them to catch his/her expressions as wholly as possible (listening practice). If not, even their listening ability will remain at a poor level, let alone their ability to use English as a practical tool of communication. But, we must not overreact to this issue to the extent that we put the cart before the horse. As mentioned, a basal part of soft-TSE is to shift our target students’ attention from ‘studying English’ as much as possible so that we can create an environment which makes learning as acceptable as possible. Therefore, bringing our target students back to English lessons would be the ruinous reverse of our intention. As long as they are not discommoded in grasping what is conveyed in English, we must not meddle in their learning so as to prevent ‘English learning, not again!’ from crossing in their mind.3
Soft-TSE is mainly designed for the students not only unfamiliar with the practical use of English but also most likely with a strong feeling of dislike for it. For this reason, soft-TSE gives the first priority to creating a stress-free environment for learning, and for this purpose, it attaches great importance to the familiarity of the learning-subject.
Predicting a future situation for English teaching/learning at Japanese universities whose financial condition forces them to enroll more and more graduates similar to our target students from upper secondary schools, we could say that soft-TSE will certainly play a much more important roll. The reason is this: as mentioned, English is now compulsory in all Japanese elementary schools. Although the aim of this is just to familiarize children with English through various language activities, it has been observed that there are children who are already discouraged in learning English during elementary schools. Regrettably, there is no authorized guideline for smoothly transitioning from English education at elementary schools. Consequently, these children may likely go on to lower secondary schools with a negative attitude toward English. It follows that English teachers at lower secondary schools―especially those who teach freshmen―face the quite difficult task of how to make them motivated to learn English. 4 Although it is urgent to eradicate negative attitudes to English as early as possible, the English curriculum at lower secondary schools, as mentioned, is too rigid to provide them any additional care. This situation produces more and more students with not only remarkably poor English knowledge and skills, not to mention practical usage ability, but also without motivation to learn English of their own accord. And, thanks to both the nearly 100 percent rate of enrolling in upper secondary schools and the financial difficulties of universities, a larger number of low-level (in terms of English) graduates from upper secondary schools will be matriculated at universities. More than ever before, this will of necessity force English teachers at the universities in question to take whatever means necessary to create a stress-free environment and make learning as acceptable as possible. Soft-TSE, for the very reasons mentioned so far, can be fully expected to accomplish this task.
1 Despite this disgraceful effort to fill the quota, about 40% of private universities could not reach their quotas as of 2013, and at about 30% of these universities, the quotas were not even half met.
2 The research conducted in 2014 shows that 93.7% of private universities worry about their students’ academic proficiency (57.7%, 61.5% at national and public universities respectively) and 77.6% of them think their students lack motivation to study (47.5%, 54.9% at national and public universities respectively).
3 When students seem to be unable to understand a teacher’s expressions, various other ways should be tried, such as using other familiar words and phrases, or showing pictures, graphs and formulas.
4 The situation of English teachers at lower secondary schools has in reality become more complicated because some sectors of the educational industry induce parents to be overzealous regarding their children’s education and push them to master English skills beyond the learning targets of an elementary school. This results in making English learning at schools of little account.
Please check the Methodology & Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the How the Motivate your Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the How to be a Teacher Trainer course at Pilgrims website.
|
