Teaching

Classes started this week, and as usual with new classes they take a lot of energy. My junior college classes are part 2 of year long courses, so I know the students. My other three classes are in the university and are oral communication classes. The students are freshman so they are kind of a handful. It always takes a while to train them in the ways of an English class

My biggest impression so far is that I am amazed at how low they are in level. It is hard to tell that they have ever had a university level English class before. They have a hard time following directions in English and of course they are always speaking to each other in Japanese. That might seem natural since they are Japanese, but at this level, after six years of English, they should be able to function in a English class. I have an only English policy in my classes which is difficult for them, but they improve so much faster if they speak only English. So it always takes a lot of effort on my part to break them of their habit of speaking Japanese to each other. But the effort is worth it because they progress so much fast when they switch totally to English.